92 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
air. When sufficiently refreshed., he prepared to re- 
enter the library, but as he was descending the steps 
which led from the terrace to the chamber below, 
the muezzin, or crier, of the royal mosque, suddenly 
announced the hour of prayer. The Emperor imme- 
diately paused, and having, as was his custom, repeat- 
ed the creed of Islam, seated himself upon one of the 
steps until the functionary had ceased his summons. 
In his attempt to rise, Humayoon placed on the mar- 
ble steps the point of his staff, but this slipping under 
his weight, he fell headlong, and was carried into the 
palace insensible. Although he recovered his senses 
and his speech, it was evident that his death was at 
hand. He lingered four days, and then expired in 
the fifty-second year of his age, and the twenty-fifth 
of his reign over India and Cabul, amid the sincere 
regrets of his subjects and of his relatives. He was 
buried on the banks of the Jumna, and a splendid 
mausoleum was some years afterwards erected over 
his remains by his son Akbar. 
This mausoleum is one of the most splendid monu- 
ments which the munificence of princes has placed 
among the magnificent memorials of departed royalty 
in that country where these monuments abound to a 
degree perhaps unparalleled in any other. Though 
built of the most costly materials, and with a lavish 
expenditure exceeding any thing which had pre- 
ceded it, the tomb of Humayoon is remarkable 
for the utter absence of everything like meretri- 
cious ornament. The spectator’s attention is par- 
ticularly arrested by the perfect chastity of design, 
and singular delicacy of execution which this cele- 
