of the rising sun.

Ackbar, the founder of the spacious palaces here situated, was an
exception to the general rule of Eastern potentates, and his residence
must have been even more magnificent than the handsome tomb of Secundra,
in which his ashes repose. The legend regarding the reason for which
Futtehpore Secreh was pitched upon by the monarch as his seat of
government is somewhat singular. It seems that he had long desired a
successor to perpetuate his great name, and rule over his vast dominions,
the possession of most of which he owed to his own strong arm and fertile
genius: it was therefore a great disappointment to him that the wished-
for prince did not make his appearance. Ackbar accordingly consulted
Shah Selim Shurstre upon this important subject, and Shah Selim Shurstre,
who lived at Futtehpore Secreh, recommended a pilgrimage to Ajmeer, which
was no sooner accomplished than Ackbar became the happy father of Jehan
Giri. In gratitude for so eminent a service, and in order to have the
benefit of such sage advice in future cases of emergency, Ackbar left
Delhi, and fixed his residence at Futtehpore Secreh, which place
possessed the further advantage of being more in the centre of his recent
conquests. Notwithstanding his devotion to the holy man, Ackbar was a
most unorthodox Mahomedan, as the figures of animals carved upon the
pillars of the palace plainly testify. These figures were sadly
mutilated by his undutiful grandson, the bigoted Aurungzebe, who held all
such representations in much the same horror that a Presbyterian would a
picture of the Virgin.

Busreet and I went over the ladies' apartments, which must have been very
cheerless, since they are entirely composed of immense slabs of red
sandstone and look hard and uncomfortable. Descending from them to the
level of the court-yard, Busreet took me into a narrow sort of corridor,
and jabbered incessantly for some minutes. I thought I could distinguish
the words "hide and seek;" but it was so very unnatural to suppose that
the only words of English Busreet knew were "hide and seek," that I
imagined he was repeating some Hindostanee phrase, until he dodged round
corners and behind pillars, crying out as he did so, "Hide and seek! Hide
and seek!"--from which I at last understood that he meant to inform me
that the ladies used to play that Occidental game in Ackbar's harem; so,
after a short game to show the old man that I understood him, we stro