famous river Ganges. I have not yet seen that
country, but mean to visit it, God willing, before my departure, the
nearest part of it being only about twelve days journey from hence.

[Footnote 248: The Persian word _Hasaret_, here erroneously rendered
Great Prophet, seems to signify literally _face_ or _presence_, and is
metaphorically used as a term of highest dignity, of which an instance
occurs in the present section, used by Coryat himself in addressing the
Great Mogul--E.]

Twice every week elephants are made to fight before the Mogul, forming
the bravest spectacle that can be imagined, many of them being thirteen
feet and a half in height, and they jostle together as though they were
two little mountains; and were they not separated in the midst of their
fighting, by means of certain fire-works, they would exceedingly hurt
and gore each other, by their murderous tusks. The Mogul is said to keep
30,000 elephants, at a most enormous expence; and in feeding them,
together with his lions and other beasts, he expends an incredible sum
of money, being at the least 10,000 pounds sterling daily. I have myself
rode upon an elephant since I came to this court, meaning in my next
book to have my effigies represented in that form. This king keeps a
thousand women for his own use, the chiefest of whom, called Normal,
(Noormahal) is his queen.

In my ten months journey between Aleppo and this court, I spent just
three pounds sterling, yet fared reasonably every day; victuals being so
cheap in some of the countries through which I travelled, that I often
lived competently for one penny a-day. Of that three pounds, I was
actually cozened out of ten shillings, by certain evil Christians of the
Armenian nation; so that in reality I only expended fifty shillings in
all that time. I have been in a city of this country called
_Detee_,[249] where Alexander the Great joined battle with Porus king of
India, and defeated him; and where, in memory of his victory, he caused
erect a brazen pillar, which remains there to this day. At this time I
have many irons in the fire, as I am learning the Persian, Turkish, and
Arabic languages, having already acquired the Italian. I have been
already three months at the court of the Great Mogul, and propose, God
willing, to remain here five months longer, till I have got these three
languages; after which I propose to visit the river Ganges, and then to
return to the court of Persia.

[Footnote 249