ce of honor at the right of the throne. Before the
assembled nobility he gave him the choice whether he would take the
governorship of a province, or would enjoy the favor of his master at
court as a benefactor of the imperial family, or whether, accompanied
by an escort befitting his rank, he would prefer to undertake a
pilgrimage to Mecca.[5] Bairam Chan was wise enough to choose the
last, but on the way to Mecca he was killed by an Afghan and the news
caused Akbar sincere grief and led him to take the four year old son
of Bairam Chan under his special protection.

[Footnote 5: Noer, I, 131.]

Mahum Anaga, the Emperor's nurse, for whom he felt a warm attachment
and gratitude, a woman revengeful and ambitious but loyal and devoted
to Akbar, had contributed in bringing about the fall of the regent.
She had cared for the Emperor from his birth to his accession and amid
the confusion of his youth had guarded him from danger; but for this
service she expected her reward. She sought nothing less than in the
role of an intimate confidante of the youthful Emperor to be secretly
the actual ruler of India.

Mahum Anaga had a son, Adham Chan by name, to whom at her suggestion
Akbar assigned the task of reconquering and governing the province of
Malwa. Adham Chan was a passionate and violent man, as ambitious and
avaricious as his mother, and behaved himself in Malwa as if he were
an independent prince. As soon as Akbar learned this he advanced by
forced marches to Malwa and surprised his disconcerted foster-brother
before the latter could be warned by his mother. But Adham Chan had no
difficulty in obtaining Akbar's forgiveness for his infringements.

On the way back to Agra, where the Emperor at that time was holding
court, a noteworthy incident happened. Akbar had ridden alone in
advance of his escort and suddenly found himself face to face with a
powerful tigress who with her five cubs came out from the shrubbery
across his path. His approaching attendants found the nineteen year
old Emperor standing quietly by the side of the slaughtered beast
which he had struck to the ground with a single blow of his sword. To
how much bodily strength, intrepidity, cold-blooded courage and
sure-sightedness this blow of the sword testified which dared not come
the fraction of a second too late, may be judged by every one who has
any conception of the spring of a raging tigress anxious for the
welfare of her young. And we may easily su