of unquestionable
authority.

They affirm that the wisdom of Solomon not only enabled him to search into
the most hidden thoughts of men, and to hold converse with them in their
respective languages, but that the gift extended even to the whole brute
creation; by which means he could hold unlimited converse, not only with
the animate, as birds, beasts, and fish, but with inanimate objects, as
shrubs, trees, and, indeed, the whole tribe of vegetable nature; and,
further, that he was permitted to discern and control aerial spirits, as
demons, genii, &c.

The pretty bird, known in India by the name of Ood-ood,[1] is much
regarded by the Mussulmauns, as by their tradition this bird was the
hurkaarah of King Solomon; and entrusted with his most important
commissions whenever he required intelligence to be conveyed to or from a
far distant place, because he could place greater confidence in the
veracity of this bird, and rely on more certain dispatch, than when
entrusting his commands to the most worthy of his men servants.

The ood-ood is beautifully formed, has a variegated plumage of black,
yellow, and white, with a high tuft of feathers on its head, through which
is a spear of long feathers protruding directly across the head for
several inches, and is of the woodpecker species. The princes, Nuwaubs,
and nobility of Hindoostaun, keep hurkaarahs for the purpose of conveying
and obtaining intelligence, who are distinguished by a short spear, with a
tuft of silk or worsted about the middle of the handle, and the tail of
the ood-ood in the front of their turban, to remind them of this bird,
which they are expected to imitate both in dispatch and fidelity. I am
told, these men (from their early training) are enabled to run from fifty
to sixty miles bare-footed, and return the same distance without halting
on the same day.

The religious devotees of the Mussulmaun persuasion, who are denominated
Soofies,[1] are conjectured, by many, to have a similar gift with Solomon
of understanding the thoughts of other men. By some it is imagined that
Solomon was the first Soofie; by others, that Ali, the husband of Fatima,
imparted the knowledge of that mystery which constitutes the real Soofie.
I am acquainted with some Natives who designate the Soofies 'Freemasons'
but I imagine this to be rather on account of both possessing a secret,
than for any similarity in other respects, between the two orders of
people.

My business, howev