Vol. II, No. 6.} Shaista Khan in Bengal. 265 
a: S.] 
writers as more degraded than a fire- py orstipping slave and more 
ee than the dog of a Jew. Whenever that forked- -tongued 
cobra, their pen, brings its head out of ah hole of the ink-pot, it 
does not write on the account-book (twmar) of their dark hearts 
any letter except to pounce upon and snatch away the subsistence 
of the soldiers. Indeed, when their tongue begins to move in the 
hole of their mouth, it does not spit out anything except curtail- 
ing the stipends of the soldiery. At times they would senselessly 
Ree a hair, and do not abstain from numerous unjust fines. 
Again, if after life-long exertion and the showering of bribes 
they are induced to sign the fard-i-chehra of any meat then, at 
the time of branding (dagh), they designate a charger worthy of 
a mere pack-horse, and on the day of pariiiessina 
(tashtha) they describe [in the records] a horse that stands erect 
as fit for the yoke ysSy>, a horse that bends its leg as lame, a 
horse that shies as doubtful S*, a horse that lacks a particle of 
hair as Taghlibi. They call a Daudi coat of mail the film of a 
wasp y9%} Sox and a steel ae itself a small linen cap. 
They regard a Rustam as a Zal, and a Zalas a mere child. May 
Go 
ie wee th ae shocks of the kachari of Crownlands misc | 
holders have to flay themselves [before getting their dues], and at 
the sacrificial altar of the office of the egy eae tankha-dars find 
it necessary to root out their own live O ye faithful! Did man 
ever hear of such tyranny as that ae letter of the identification- 
marks of the seein office should be written by a LiBoranss: — ? 
O ye Muslims! Did man ever see such elgg as that one word 
has to be written by ten men? In [making out] the sania 
Pepet co they cou the tankha due and magnify the deduc- 
tion to be ma , through a mistake, the balance is entered in 
the aenhe (qabuz), they treat it as a true record and appropriate 
the amount to themselves. And they think that they yo con- 
Father 
jagir of the sarkar of Jannatabad (Paradise), ate without (131, a.] 
authorisation, they demand from his progeny re und amounting to 
