TIMUR BEG. 
125 
impossible not to see how deplorably they were ob- 
scured by the ferocious tendencies of his heart. 
Timur in his person was tall, corpulent, and well- 
shaped. His limbs were robust and muscular, his 
shoulders broad, his fingers thick, and his legs long. 
His forehead was spacious, and his head large, his eyes 
being prominent and penetrating. His complexion was 
fair, and extremely ruddy ; his voice loud and piercing. 
He had improved his naturally vigorous constitution by 
temperance and exercise. He left behind him thirty- 
six sons and grandsons, besides seventeen female de- 
scendants, with all of whom he lived in general har- 
mony and good-will. His authority over them was 
absolute ; and whenever one of the former was de- 
tected in any failure of duty, according to the laws 
of Jengyz Khan, he was punished with the bastinado, 
and then restored to favour. The sceptre of J agatay 
was one of twenty-seven held by this great conqueror, 
and he kept in awe the whole Eastern world. 
Timur was a munificent prince, as is sufficient- 
ly proved by the cities, fortresses, bridges, palaces, 
mosques, hospitals, and serais which he erected in his 
own dominions, and in different parts of Asia; the 
rivers and canals which he dug, besides the various 
institutions which he endowed and supported. Even 
his warmest admirers, however, admit that he was a 
great dissembler, and yet he is stated to have so ab- 
horred a lie that he never forgave it ; but it is to be _ 
suspected that this love of truth was a subsidiary 
quality of his mind, rather than a moral impulse, 
and was encouraged because it helped the accomplish- 
ment of his political purposes, not from the abstract 
m 3 
