WILD BEAST FIGHTS. 
109 
CHAPTER X. 
I have already said that Futtepoor Sicri was a 
favourite city of Akbar. It is now scarcely more 
than a village, a large space within the decayed wall 
built by the Emperor being without edifices of any 
kind, and many of those yet standing are in a state 
af melancholy dilapidation ; still the traces of its 
former splendour may be seen in some very striking 
remains, as the frontispiece sufficiently attests. The 
neighbouring hills are composed of a greyish granite, 
and have evidently supplied the material of which the 
town is built. Here Akbar used to pass much of his 
time, and here he established wild beast fights which 
were during his reign still more celebrated than those 
of Lucknow have since been. Indeed these fights 
have in all ages, more or less, formed one of the fa- 
vourite pastimes of Eastern sovereigns. To them war 
was a high and stirring delight, and therefore every- 
thing that had a tendency to illustrate the art of war, 
or to excite similar impulses, roused in their bosoms 
those feelings which it was the grand aim of their 
lives to cherish. 
The Emperor Akbar was particularly fond of these 
sports, no less than of the chase, and his attachment 
to the latter, the extracts from the work of his vizier 
in the preceding chapter abundantly verify. In 
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