162 H. HOSTEN ON 



composition in his honour.' — 'I am not now in the mood for it/ Mirza answered; 

 ' but, if your father were to become a Christian, I should make a very fine hymn in 

 his honour.' The Prince laughed heartily at the supposition. Eventually, however, 

 Mirza made the song. King Xajan ventured to tell Mirza Zulcarane through a third 

 party that, if he wished to follow the sect of Muhammad, he would let him have 

 Sambar for life. Now it yielded eight leques of rupees a year. 1 To this Mirza 

 answered, ' Go and tell the King that my religion is not so cheap in my eyes that I 

 should barter it against any number of leques of rupees.' A good example for those 

 who write with their own blood that they sacrifice their life to the devil in return for 

 a treasure, and in the end they find themselves in a bonfire. 



" Fr. Francisco Morando would speak at length about Mirza's Christianity. He 

 knew him very intimately, having been 22 years his companion. Every day Mirza 

 recited Our Lady's rosary, heard Mass, and, what is more, when he was travelling about 

 with the King, Fr. Morando had to say Mass daily in his tent. And it happened often 

 that the King's lascar was already moving when the Mass began ; still, they would 

 not touch Mirza's tent before Mass was finished. His intelligence was very sharp and 

 keen. Sometimes he spoke to Fr. Morando about predestination in a way which 

 astonished him. Once, for instance, a poor basar [bazar] woman passing near him, 

 he said: 'Father, how have I deserved that God should make me a Christian in 

 preference to that poor woman who passes there, and who, if she dies without baptism, 

 will surely go to hell ?' Fr. Morando said sometimes that Mirza had never known any 

 other woman than his own wife; as a young man and a widower, he was without re- 

 proach, a rare thing for one who lived all his life at the Court of so mighty a King and 

 a Moor too, where liberty is so great and the occasions of offending God are so many. 

 It is the custom, as I said above, that all the Umbraos and noblemen (fidalgos) should 

 go twice a day to pay their respects to the King. Mirza did it often too, not that he 

 was obliged — since the King had dispensed him — but when he liked. One day as 

 some of the Umbraos were in the King's presence, one of them saw Mirza entering 

 the court of the Palace Gate. 'Sire,' he said to the King, 'Mirza Zulcarane is 

 coming along there; but he looks as if he had drunk wine to-day.' — ■' Then,' said the 

 King , ' tell the head porter (these are always persons of high rank) that he must not 

 let him in, and let him tell him to come another day, for we have no time to-day.' 

 The porter obeyed, and Mirza returned home. But, a few days later, when Mirza was 

 in the King's presence with other nobles, the one who had accused him to the King for 

 being drunk, happened to enter at the Palace Gate, and a noble, a friend of Mirza's, 

 having related the story, told him : ' Here comes the fellow who, some days ago, said to 

 the King that you were drunk. From his ways it seems that he has indulged in wine 

 himself. So, tell the King, too, that such a one looks tipsy.' — ' You people are blind,' 

 answered Mirza. 'You do not know the law of the Christians. My law teaches me 

 that, if one strike you on the one cheek, you must offer him also the other.' 2 You 

 must not be vindictive, but must do good to those who do you evil.' Mirza was well 



1 Therefore, it left Zu-1-Qarnain in 1649-51 a profit of 2 lakhs, and a larger margin of profit during his earlier tenures 

 of administration. Cf. supra, pp. 146, 161. 2 The reference is either to St. Matth. v. 39 or to St. Luke vi. 29. 



