168 
THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL. 
virtue. Others there are, however, whose conduct has 
tended greatly to overthrow the public faith in these 
matters ; those who, for the accomplishment of sinis- 
ter purposes, have allowed and encouraged a false 
belief, that they were in communion with, and in the 
enjoyment of, supernatural powers from spirits of an- 
other world, until the deceit has been discovered. 
By the fraudulent behaviour of two such persons, not 
long since, was the simple credulity of the people 
abused, and discredit for a while befel magic and the 
magicians in all the country round about Futtehpore 
Sikri, and Agra. 
Trusting that my readers are disposed to be en- 
tertained with this very curious subject, I shall in 
few words relate the circumstance here alluded to, 
begging them to rely upon my assurance that the 
story — even if it be by wilful misrepresentation or 
accidental misconception, by an over-anxiety for the 
full display of truth, or the insensible influence of the 
imagination, in any measure embellished — is never- 
theless founded upon fact, built with the materials of 
original reality, and its base supported by the most 
substantial testimony. 
I have noticed the wild romantic appearance of 
the range of hills upon which Futtehpore Sikri is 
elevated ; and certainly no place could be more ap- 
propriate to the dark and mysterious tales of magic, 
or the deeds of carnage and intrigues of a bloody and 
despotic court, than the interminable ruins of forts 
