Note on the Death of Hum ay hn. 
133 
1871.] 
like, I could get a Gaya artist to make a facsimile of the picture— 
they draw very well, I hear ; the cost would be trifling and the pic¬ 
ture I think would make an excellent and interesting frontispiece 
to any report you may he writing. 
Have you ever heard the legend of the piece of a broken 
cannon, evidently the part of a gun used by the Muhammadans 
during the siege of Mangarh. It went by the name of Top Sai, 
and was said to travel of its own accord from village to village 
and then return to the Fort. The people did ‘ puja’ to it, and 
streaked it with sindur. One of Thompson’s surveyors carried it 
off to Hazaribagh. 
Note on the Death of Humdyun.—By C. J. Kodgeks, Esq., Umritsir. 
On my last visit to Dihli, I went again to the Sher Man dal in the 
Purana Qil’ah, in order to verify Marshman and Elphinstone’s 
account of Humayun’s death. When I returned, I looked to see 
what Eirislitah and the Siyar ul Mutaakhkharin said of the affair. 
I send a free translation of the two, and confront Marshman, Elphin- 
stone, and Murray with these accounts. 
There is no more marble in the Sher Mandal than there is red 
granite in the fort of Shahjahanabad, Heber, Thornton, and Ansted 
notwithstanding. There is no sign of marble having been pre¬ 
sent in the building. It is not much the worse for wear. Part 
of the parapet in gone, and that is nearly all the damage that has 
been caused by 300 years. 
Elphinstone's Account. 
<£ Humayun had been walking on the terrace of his library, and 
was descending the stairs (which, in such situations, are narrow 
steps on the outside of the building, and only guarded by an orna¬ 
mental parapet about a foot high). Hearing the call to prayers 
from the minarets, he stopped, as is usual on such occasions, 
repeated the creed, and sat down on the steps till the crier had 
done. He then endeavoured to rise, supporting himself on his 
staff: the staff slipped on the polished marble of the steps, and 
the king fell headlong over the parapet. He was stunned at the 
