174 
THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL. 
in the marshes. The Hindoo soldiery, who were 
upon a height commanding a view of the whole 
scene, observing the confusion in the Mohummedan 
army, soon surrounded them, and made them an 
unresisting prey to their marksmen. The Molram- 
rnedan army was thus almost annihilated ; and 
Roostum Kahn, who was a notorious boaster, being- 
recalled to Hydrabad, was degraded from his rank, 
and sentenced to that most odious and disgraceful 
of punishments, of being attired in the costume of a 
woman, and paraded through the streets of the city, 
mounted backwards upon an ass. He was after- 
wards banished from the kingdom. 
The whole history of Mohummed Kooli Kootab 
Shah is full of interest. He wonderfully increased 
the prosperity and extent of his dominions, and was 
perhaps the most munificent of the Kootab Shahi 
sovereigns. According to the account of Meer Aboo 
Talib, he expended in the erection of public wmrks, 
in Hydrabad alone, a sum amounting to £2,8(10,000 
of English money ; and distributed to the poor, from 
his private purse, an annual sum of £24,000. He 
died in a. d. 1611. 
The streets of Hydrabad are narrow and incon- 
venient, and abominably dirty and noisy. The 
houses, for the most part, though extremely pic- 
turesque, are but slightly built, and many of them 
are entirely of wood. The handsome gateway on 
the left side of the Char Minar, as seen in the 
