On Friday, the 15th of the Divine month of Farwardin, two qutas oxen, out of the offerings of the Zamindar of Tibet, were brought before me. In form and appearance they closely resemble the buffalo. All the limbs are covered with wool which properly belongs to animals in a cold country. For instance, the rang goats (ibex), which they brought from the country of Bhakkar (Sind) and the hill-country of the Garmsir (in Afghanistan) were very handsome, and had but little wool, and those that are met with in these hills, on account of the excessive cold and snow, are covered with hair and ugly. The Kashmiris call the rang kapal. [354] On this day they brought a musk deer as an offering. As I had not tasted its flesh, I ordered it to be cooked; it appeared very tasteless and bad for food. The flesh of no other wild animal is so inferior. The musk-bag when fresh has no scent, but when it is left for some days and becomes dry, it is sweet-scented. The female has no musk-bag. In these two or three days I frequently embarked in a boat, and was delighted to go [355] round and look at the flowers of Phak and Shalamar. Phak is the name of a pargana situated on the other side of the lake. Shalamar is near the lake. It has a pleasant stream, which comes down from the hills, and flows into the Dal Lake. I bade my son Khurram dam it up and make a waterfall, which it would be a pleasure to behold. This place is one of the sights of Kashmir.
On Sunday, the 17th, a strange affair took place. Shah Shuja` was playing in the buildings of the palace. By chance there was a window with a screen in front of it looking towards the river. They had put a screen in front, but had not fastened the door, and the prince in play went towards the window to look out. As soon as he arrived there he fell headlong. By chance they had laid down a carpet below the wall, and a farrash (carpet-spreader) was sitting near it. The child's head fell on this carpet, and his feet on the back and shoulders of the farrash, and so came to the ground. Though the height was 7 yards [356] (dara`), the compassion of God, the Great and Glorious, came to his aid, and the carpet and the farrash became the means of saving his life. God forbid, but if it had not been so it would have been a serious matter for him. At the time Ray Man, the head of the Khidmatiyya [357] piyadas, was standing below the jharoka. He immediately ran and picked him up, and holding him in his arms, was taking him upstairs. In that condition he asked: "Whither are you carrying me?" He replied: "Into the presence of His Majesty." Then weakness overcame him, and he could speak no more. I was lying down when this alarming news reached me, and ran out in a state of bewilderment. When I saw him in this state my senses forsook me, and for a long time holding him in my affectionate embrace I was distracted with this favour from Allah. When a child of four years of age falls headlong from a place ten ordinary (shar`i) gaz in height, and no harm happens to his limbs, it is a cause for amazement. Having performed my prostrations for this fresh act of goodness, I distributed alms, and ordered that deserving people and the poor who lived in the city should be brought before me in order that I might assure them their means of livelihood. A strange thing was that three or four months before this event Jotik Ray, the astrologer, who is one of the most skilled of the class in astrology, had represented to me, without any intermediary, that it was predicted from the Prince's horoscope that these three or four months were unpropitious to him, and it was possible he might fall down from some high place, but that the dust of calamity would not settle on the skirt of his life. As his prognostications had repeatedly proved correct, this dread dwelt in my mind, and on these dangerous roads and difficult mountain passes I was never for a moment forgetful of that nursling of the parterre of Fortune. I continually kept him in sight, and took the greatest precautions with regard to him. When I arrived in Kashmir this unavoidable [358] catastrophe occurred. His nurses (anagaha) and wet-nurses must have been very careless. God be praised that it ended well!