23. Firoz Shaihs Tunnels at Delhi. 
By Rev. H. Hostsn, S.J. 
The building tia aoe Rag i 30s in Delhi give 
special actuality to the question of Firoz Shah’s tunnels. 
8 of the native papers, it ue babe. zs the question last 
year; but we have not heard whether any new arguments have 
been brought forward either in favour of or against the exis- 
tence of the tunnels. 
We showed from Sayyid Ahmad Khan’s Description des 
Monuments de Delhi, the first Hindostani edition of whic ap- 
peared in 1847 (cf. J.AS.B., 1911, pp. 99—108), that the ere 
tion recorded in 1581 by Father A. Monserrate, S.J., 
repeated i in the Ain and in ee travels (1611), was tala ait 
rent in Ahmad Khan’s time. Was it more than a tradition ? 
Was ies documentary ate) ey ¢ This we were ee to 
prove ; but, we laid stress on the fact that, since only 154 years 
had inten between Firoz Shah’s death (1388) and akber's 
birth, a public fact attested by a public monument could hardly 
have been lost sight of. There must have been alive in Akbar’s 
time old men who had conversed with octogenarians born 
under Firoz Shah’s reign. Besides, there were ae public 
records, and Akbar’s library contained 24,000 volum 
Whatever the tradition ma y rest on, we may be panied 
if we attach special ee to whatever tends to establish its 
wage ed till our own tim 
ing the Mauar “ot 1857, this tradition very nearly 
al a pen among the British soldiers stationed at the ruins 
of Sir T. M etcalfe's once splendid mansion, ‘‘on the very 
banks of the river.’’ The grounds about the house, which 
were very extensive, well wooded and surrounded by a stone 
wall, were occupied by a strong picket. 
M ajor-General Sir Thomas Seaton writes (From Cadet to 
Colonel, London, Hurst and Blackett, 1866, II, pp. 183—184): 
‘© When I relieved the field-officer of the day on the 17th 
went instantly, and certainly the blows of some instrument 
were distinct enough. With the officer commanding the picket 
I examined the ravine immediately in front of the building, an 
saw at once that to drive a gallery under it would be impossible ; 
for it would be below the level of the river, which was now 
rising, swollen by the periodical rains. As the noise ae 
pay? been caused by the stamping of the horses, I had t 
