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common origin with the stones fallen on the earth. This he obtained 

 from Colonel Kirkpatrick, and it consists of a translation from the 

 Persian, made by the Colonel, of a passage in the Memoirs of the 

 Emperor Jehangire, written by himself. The substance of this ex- 

 tract is as follows : In the first year of this Emperor's reign (A. 1030 

 of the Hegira) there arose one morning in a village, about 100 miles 

 East of Lahore, such a tremendous noise as had near deprived the in- 

 habitants of their sense of hearing. During this noise, a luminous 

 body was observed to fall from above on the earth, suggesting to the 

 beholders the idea that the firmament was pouring fire. In a short 

 time the noise having subsided, and the inhabitants having recovered 

 from their alarm, a messenger was dispatched by them to the Aumil, 

 or fiscal superintendant of the district, to apprise him of the event. 

 This magistrate immediately repaired to the spot, and there perceived 

 that the earth, to an extent of about ten or twelve yards in diameter, 

 was burnt to such a degree that not a blade of grass nor the least trace 

 of verdure remained ; nor had the heat, which had been communicated 

 to it, as yet subsided. 



The Aumil hereupon caused the aforesaid space of ground to be 

 dug up. The deeper they went the greater was the heat found to be. 

 At length a lump of iron made its appearance, the heat of which was 

 so great that one might have supposed it to have been taken from a 

 furnace. After some time it became cold, when the Aumil conveyed 

 it to his own habitation, from whence he dispatched it to court. 



Here (the Emperor says) I had it weighed in my presence, and 

 found its weight to fall little short of 80 ounces. I committed it to 

 a skilful artist, with orders to make it into a sabre, a knife, and a 

 dagger ; but the workman soon reported to me that the substance 

 would not bear the hammer, but shivered into pieces when struck. 

 Upon this I ordered it to be mixed with other iron. Accordingly 

 three parts of this iron of lightning, as we called it, were mixed with 

 one part of common iron ; and from this mixture were made two 

 sabres, one knife, and one dagger. By the addition of the common 

 iron, the new substance acquired a fine temper, the blades fabricated 

 from it proving as elastic as the most perfect that can be made in our 

 country. I had them tried in my presence, and found that they cut 

 admirably. One of the sabres I called Katai, or the Cutter, and the 

 other Busk-serisht, or the Lightning-natured. 



In a tetrastich presented to the Emperor on this occasion, it is as- 

 serted that in his time fell raw iron from lightning. Colonel Kirk- 

 patrick certifies the genuineness of the manuscript, and the fidelity 

 of the translation ; and Mr. Greville adds, that he considers this as 

 an authentic fact, the Emperor Jehangire not being a prince on whom 

 his courtiers would idly venture to impose, or to whom an Aumil of 

 a district would have dared to produce a substance pretending it to 

 be iron, which on trial should be found to differ from manufactured 



