124 
THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL. 
which raged for a length of time, and slew hun- 
dreds daily. 
At this period, there existed a common belief that 
the great and successful emperor Akbur assisted 
himself in the art of war by the practice of necro- 
mancy, and the new calamities which daily beset the 
once proud garrison of Aseer seemed to confirm the 
vulgar opinion. A report was circulated that a 
council of magicians accompanied the besieging 
army; and in consequence of his credulity, Bahadoor 
Kahn, although he continued to endure the blockade, 
neglected even the commonest precautions for his 
safety, alleging that, since his misfortunes arose from 
the above-mentioned cause, it was not in the power 
of man to avert them ; and that any efforts for that 
purpose would only tend to increase the accumula- 
tion of evil. The dead were suffered to lie in the 
streets and houses, a prey to birds and vermin ; the 
sick w T ere abandoned to their wretched fate ; and the 
cattle died in thousands from starvation, not from 
the scarcity of provender, but for want of a hand to 
feed them. 
At this juncture, the besiegers stormed and carried 
the lower fort, called Mallighur. Nothing could 
exceed the infatuation of Bahadoor Kahn, who, 
since the commencement of the siege, appeared to 
have come suddenly under the influence of extreme 
avarice ; for although he had at this time ten years’ 
store of grain, and treasure to an enormous amount, 
