432 



females, whom, indeed, they were nol often permitted to see; but 

 formed their judgment of the disorder by feeling the patient's pulse 

 with the arm admitted through a perforated curtain. It certainly 

 would be no easy matter to persuade a brahmin to mingle Peruvian 

 bark, or any other medicine, with wine or distilled spirits ; but to 

 take the drug in simple water, or compounded with any ingre- 

 dients he was accustomed to, would not be attended with difficulty. 

 As to the other castes, in general, provided they are persuaded the 

 prescription is to effect a cure, or prove a stimulus, they wave the 

 ceremony of being very particular in their inquiries. 



Among some curiosities at Surat, I had an opportunity of see- 

 ing a few more of the zodiac rupees in good preservation, but could 

 not meet with any for sale. When these singular coins occurred 

 on a former occasion, I had not read Lord Valentia's travels, 

 otherwise I might have acquired some light from a note in the 

 appendix. In his journey from Calcutta to the northern districts, 

 his Lordship only mentions having procured one of the zodiac 

 mohurs at Benares, which were now so extremely rare, that it was 

 impossible to purchase a complete set. In the note it is remarked, 

 that the tradition of their having been coined by Noor Jehan, em- 

 press of Jehangheer, is discredited by the natives of science and 

 research, who rather imagine that the emperor, on the celebration 

 of his birth or reign, ordered medals to be struck, with the sign of 

 the zodiac in which the sun was when such anniversary occurred ; 

 which his long reign, and the difference of solar and lunar years, 

 would easily have allowed to pass throughout the whole number. 

 Lord Valentia seems persuaded they were intended for medals, and 

 not for a curreut coin. Some of them have this inscription ; 



