348 The Abode of Snow.

emperor might find repose, and gather strength for the
more serious duties of power.

Jehdngfr was a strange but intelligible character.
One historian briefly says of him—" Himself a drunk-
ard during his whole life, he punished all who used
wine." And after the unsuccessful rebellion of his son
Khusru, he made that prince pass along a line of 700
*of his friends who had assisted him in rebelling. These
friends were all seated upon spikes—in fact, they were
impaled ; so we may see it was not without good reason
that Jehangfr occasionally sought for secluded places of
retirement But these characteristics, taken alone, give
an unfair idea of this great ruler. Though he never
entirely shook off the dipsomaniac habits which he had
formed at an early age, yet it may have been an acute
sense of the inconvenience of them which made him so
anxious to prevent any of his subjects from falling into
the snare; he hints an opinion that though his own
head might stand liquor without much damage, it by no
means followed that other people's heads could* do so ;
and the severe punishment of the adherents of a rebel-
lious son was, in his time, almost necessary to secure
the throne.

Jehangfr did, in fact, love mercy as well as do justice,
and was far from being a bad ruler. He was wont to
say that he would rather lose all the rest of his empire
than Kashmfr ;* and it is likely that in this and similar
gardens he enjoyed the most pleasure which his life
afforded. His companion there was Mihrunnisa Kha-
nam, better known as Ntir Jahan, "the Light of the
Wbrld."*f When a young prince he had seen and loved

* Voyages de Francois Bernier, conlenant la Description des Etats du
Grand Mogol, Amsterdam, 1699.

f She was also, for a time, called Nur Mahall, tfce Light of the Palace;
and unddMhis name must be distinguished from the queen of Jehanglr's
son Shah Jahin, Jp whom was, raised the wonderful Taj Mahal at Agra.