FUTTEHPORE SIKRI. 
163 
Brahmins attribute his unbroken prosperity, during a 
reign of peace and plenty, extending over half a 
century. The miraculous tales which are told and 
believed of Akbur and his school of soothsayers are, 
as I said, innumerable, and certainly many are very 
ingenious, and appear to carry with them very con- 
vincing evidence of their truth. 
Of all the dealers in magic throughout the Indian 
Empire, those of Surat appear to have been most 
celebrated ; and certainly some of their predictions 
have been of that nature which at once confounds 
the sceptic, and leaves him only the option of follow- 
ing Addison’s advice touching ghost stories. I can- 
not answer for words, I quote them from memory— 
“ we must not entirely believe them, because they 
may be false ; we must not altogether disbelieve 
them, because they may be true.” 
A very scarce and curious work has just come into 
my possession, entitled — “ A Voyage to Suratt, in 
the year 1689, by J. Covington, M.A., Chaplain to 
his Majesty ; ” a work which is highly complimented 
in the Harleian Catalogue, Vol. II. p. 698. The 
reader, I take for granted, will readily pardon my 
quoting a page or two from the quaintly written diary 
of this reverend gentleman, recounting a very sin- 
gular instance of circumstantial accuracy in one of 
these prophets ; and after perusal, I doubt not but he 
will join in the pretty things said to the author in 
