1870.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 119 



" At night the headless rider arrived before the gate of Bhitargarh, 

 where two of his servants stood on guard. He told them not to be 

 afraid, and explained what had happened to him in Gaur, and that 

 he had been innocently killed by the king. He then asked them 

 to give him some pan. But this the men would not do, saying that 

 his head was high above, and he would not be able to eat. " Then 

 it is not Allah's will,' exclaimed Isma'il, ' that my head should 

 join the body ;' — for he would have been restored to life, if they had 

 given him something to eat, — ' go therefore, my head, go back to 

 Gaur, to be buried there.' Thereupon the head returned to Gaur 

 the same road it had come, and the grave where it was buried 

 there, may be seen at this day. 



"When the head had left, Isma'il asked the guards to open the 

 gates. He entered the town, and coming to a certain spot within 

 the Fort, he ordered the earth to open herself, when suddenly, 

 before the eyes of all, horse and rider disappeared in the yawning 

 abyss. The earth then closed again. 



"These wonderful events were soon told all over the neighbour- 

 hood, and crowds of visitors came to see the hallowed spot where 

 the martyr had disappeared. 



" About the same time, the Rajah of Bardwan was at warfare with 

 the Rajah of Bardah,* and the latter had made a vow that he 

 would built a Dargah or Astdnah (tomb) for Hazrat Isma'il, should 

 he be successful against the Bardwan Rajah. Fortune favouring 

 him, he kept his vow and built the tomb, which is still now-a-days 

 within Bhitargarh at Madaran. 



"There is an inscription," said the Munshi, " on the shrine, in 

 which reference is made to the Rajah of Bardah ; but it is in Tughra 

 characters, and no one can read it now." 



I have since ascertained that the inscription is so defaced as to 

 be no longer readable. 



Between Bhitargarh and Gog' hat lies a small place called 

 Madinah. It is not given on the Survey Map (of 1852), but the 



* The Parganab of Bardah lies S. of Jahanabad, and E. of Chandarkona, 

 and the Zamindaris of the Rajah extended from NimtaJlah G'hatsal (about, 

 live miles from the northern boundary of Midnapore, on the Salyc, a tribu- 

 tary of the Rupnarain) into Midnapore, which formerly belonged to Orissa. 



