a candlestick is fixed, having a wick in it about as thick as the thumb. In the right hand they hold a gourd, through a narrow slit made in which, oil is let trickle in a thin thread when the wick needs it. Great people keep a hundred or two of these lamp-men. This is the Hindustan substitute for lamps and candlesticks ! If their rulers and begs have work at night needing candles, these dirty lamp-men bring these lamps, go close up and there stand.
Except their large rivers and their standing-waters which flow in ravines or hollows (there are no waters). There are no running-waters in their gardens or residences (^imdratldr).'1 These residences have no charm, air (hawd), regularity or symmetry.
Peasants and people of low standing go about naked. They tie on a thing called lungutd? a decency-clout which hangs two spans below the navel. From the tie of this pendant decencyclout, another clout is passed between the thighs and made fast behind. Women also tie on a cloth {lung), one-half of which goes round the waist, the other is thrown over the head.
(u. Advantages of Hindustan.)
Pleasant things of Hindustan are that it is a large country and has masses of gold and silver. Its air in the Rains is very fine. Sometimes it rains io, 15 or 20 times a day ; torrents pour down all at once and rivers flow where no water had been. While it rains and through the Rains, the air is remarkably fine, not to be surpassed for healthiness and charm. The fault is that the air becomes very soft and damp. A bow of those (Transoxanian) countries after going through the Rains in Hindustan, may not be drawn even ; it is ruined ; not only the bow, everything is affected, armour, book, cloth, and utensils all; a house even does
* The words in parenthesis appear to be omitted from the text; to add them brings Babur's remark into agreement with others on what he several times makes note of, viz. the absence not only of irrigation-channels but of those which convey " runningwaters " to houses and gardens. Such he writes of in Farghana ; such are a wellknown charm e.g. in Madeira, where the swift current of clear water flowing through the streets, turns into private precincts by side-runlets.
2 The Hai. MS. writes lunguta-dik, like a lungiita, which better agrees with Babur's usual phrasing. Lung is Persian for a cloth passed between the loins, is an equivalent of S. dhoti. Babur's use of it (infra) for the woman's (P.) chaddar or (S.) sari does not suit the Dictionary definition of its meaning.
