scended to the top, stood a few minutes on the verge, laughing
at those who were running after him, and made a spring that enabled
him to reach the bottom, without touching the sides. An eye-witness
told me that he kept his erect position till about half-way down,
when he turned over, and continued to turn till he got to the bottom,
when his fall made a report like a gun. He was of course dashed to
pieces. About five months ago another fell over by accident, and was
dashed to pieces against the sides. A new road has been here cut
through the tomb of the Emperor Ala-ud-din, who murdered his father-
in-law-the first Muhammadan conqueror of Southern India, and his
remains have been scattered to the winds.[37]

A very pretty marble tomb, to the west of the alcoves, covers the
remains of Imam Mashhadi, the religious guide of the Emperor Akbar;
and a magnificent tomb of freestone covers those of his four foster-
brothers. This was long occupied as a dwelling-house by the late Mr.
Blake, of the Bengal Civil Service, who was lately barbarously
murdered at Jaipur. To make room for his dining-tables he removed the
marble slab, which covered the remains of the dead, from the centre
of the building, against the urgent remonstrance of the people, and
threw it carelessly on one side against the wall, where it now lies.
The people appealed in vain, it is said, to Mr. Fraser, the Governor-
General's representative, who was soon after assassinated; and a good
many attribute the death of both to this outrage upon the remains of
the dead foster-brother of Akbar. Those of Ala-ud-din were, no doubt,
older and less sensitive. Tombs equally magnificent cover the remains
of the other three foster-brothers of Akbar, but I did not enter
them.[38]

Notes:

1. The Sultan, called by the author 'the Emperor Tughlak the First',
as being the first of the Tughlak dynasty, was by birth a Karauniah
Turk, named Ghazi Beg Tughlak. He assumed the style of Ghiyas-ud-din
Tughlak Shah when he seized the throne in A.D. 1320, and he reigned
till A.D. 1325.

2. This gigantic fortress is close to the village of Badarpur, about
four miles due east of the Kutb Minar, and ten or twelve miles south
of the modern city. The building of it occupied more than three
years, but the whole undertaking 'proved eminently futile, as his son
removed his Court to the old city within forty days after his
accession.' (Thomas, _Chronicles of the Pathan Kings of Delhi_, 1871,