BY THE ANCIENT HINDUS. 



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enemy with 10,000 horsemen, 40,000 men on foot, and a 

 great number of elephants clad in armour. On the top 

 of those elephants were big howdahs from which the 

 sharpshooters flung fireworks and rockets on the troops of 

 Timur ; and on the sides of those elephants marched " des 

 jetteurs de pots a feu et de poix enflamee ainsi que des 

 fusees volantes pointees de fer, qui donnent plusieurs coups 

 de suite dans le lieu ou ils tombent." 88 According to Clavigo, 

 Timur was beaten in the first engagement through those 50 

 mailed elephants, but on the following day Timur took 

 many camels and loaded them with dry grass placing them 

 in front of the elephants. When the battle began, he 

 caused the grass to be set on fire and when the elephants 

 saw the burning straw upon the camels, they fled." 89 When 

 attacking Bhat iir, Timur's troops were received in a similar 

 manner for "the besieged cast down in showers arrows and 

 stones and fireworks upon the heads of the assailants." 90 



According to Ferishta, Hulaku Khan, the founder of the 

 Mogol Empire in Western Asia, sent in 1258 an ambassador 

 to the King of Delhi, and when the ambassador was 

 approaching he was received by the vezir of the king with a 

 great retinue, and among the splendid sights were 3,000 fire 

 cars. About the same time we are informed that in the wars 

 between the Chinese and the Mogol invaders a kind of fire- 

 arms was used. It seems to have been like a rocket. It was 

 called impetuous fire dart. "A nest of grains — case of chick 

 peas — was introduced into a long tube of bamboo, which, on 

 being ignited, darted forth a violent flame, and instantly the- 

 charge was projected with a noise like that of a pao, which 



88 See Histoire de Timur-bec, par Cherifeddin Ali d'Yezd, traduite par 

 le feu M. Petits de la Croix. 1723, III, p. 94. 



89 See Narrative of the Embassy of Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo to the Court 

 of Timur at Samarcand. London, 1859, p. 153. 



90 See Malfuzat-i-Timurl in Sir H. M. Elliot's Histories of India, III, 424. 



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