SULTAN MAUZAM 5 S ADVENTURE. 191 
lion was occasionally hunted without these pre¬ 
cautions. Bernier gives us a remarkable instance. 
Aurungzebe, who was gratified by displays of 
personal courage, and who had distinguished him¬ 
self when a youth by attacking an elephant single- 
handed, commanded his son, Sultan Mauzam, in a 
full assembly of omrahs, to kill a lion which had 
descended from the mountains, and was then laying 
waste the surrounding country. The grand master 
of the hunt ventured to hope that Sultan Mauzam 
might be permitted to avail himself of those capacious 
nets which are ordinarily made use of in so perilous 
a chase. 64 He shall attack the lion without nets, 55 
sternly replied the king, “when I was prince I 
thought not of such precautions ! 55 An order given 
in so decisive a tone could not be disobeyed. The 
Prince declined not the fearful undertaking. He 
encountered and overcame the tremendous beast, 
with the loss of only two or three men; some 
horses were mangled, and the wounded lion bounded 
on the head of the Sultan’s elephant. 55 
