204 
LIVES OF THE MOGHUL EMPERORS. 
1528. The barbarous practice of erecting towers with 
the heads of the slain was still prevalent in Baber’s 
time ; but it was abandoned by his successors. 
There was always this difference between these dis- 
gusting piles of human skulls raised by Baber and 
those erected by Timur : the one used only the heads 
of his enemies killed in battle ; the other butchered 
thousands of victims in order to build those horrible 
pyramids : the one slew his foes in honourable war- 
fare., the other butchered them in cold blood. 
Baber had now vanquished the most formidable of 
his enemies, and had therefore leisure to march east- 
ward to the assistance of his general, lately dis- 
comfited by the Afghans, whom he was determined 
finally to reduce to obedience. On reaching Babery, 
he was joined by his defeated squadrons. Encamp- 
ing on the banks of the Ganges, he collected a num- 
ber of boats, and, to the astonishment and dismay 
of his enemies, threw a bridge over that river, and 
passed with his whole army. His vanguard attacked 
the dispirited Afghans, who gave way after a faint 
resistance, and retreated with such despatch that they 
left the whole of their baggage, together with many of 
their families and followers, in the hands of their foes. 
The emperor pursued his march towards Lucknow, 
whither the enemy had retired upon a former occasion, 
when Mohammed Sultan Mirza advanced against 
Canouje from which they retreated at his approach. 
Crossing the Goomty, one of the tributaries of the 
Ganges, Baber encamped on the banks of that stream 
and bathed in its refreshing waters. In consequence pro- 
bably of being overheated, he was seized with deafness. 
