The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)

The kūīl1819 (Eudynamys orientalis, the koel) is another. It may be as large as the crow (P. zāg) but is much slenderer. It has a kind of song and is understood to be the bulbul of Hindūstān. Its honour with Hindūstānīs is as great as is the bulbul’s. It always stays in closely-wooded gardens.

The (P.) siyāh-sār (black-head) is another. This also is like a lizard. It is in all rivers of Hindūstān. One that was taken and brought in was about 4-5 qārī (cir. 13 feet) long and as thick perhaps as a sheep. It is said to grow still larger. Its snout is over half a yard long. It has rows of small teeth in its upper and lower jaws. It comes out of the water and sinks into the mud (bātā).

The (Sans.) g[h]aṛīāl (Gavialus gangeticus) is another.1822 It is said to grow large; many in the army saw it in the Sarū (Gogra) river. It is said to take people; while we were on that river’s banks (934-935 A.H.), it took one or two slave-women (dādūk), and it took three or four camp-followers between Ghāzīpūr and Banāras. In that neighbourhood I saw one but from a distance only and not quite clearly.

The water-hog (P. khūk-ābī, Platanista gangetica, the porpoise) is another. This also is in all Hindūstān rivers. It comes up suddenly out of the water; its head appears and disappears; it Fol. 282.dives again and stays below, shewing its tail. Its snout is as long as the siyāh-sār’s and it has the same rows of small teeth. Its head and the rest of its body are fish-like. When at play in the water, it looks like a water-carrier’s bag (mashak). Water-hogs, playing in the Sarū, leap right out of the water; like fish, they never leave it.

Again there is the kalah (or galah)-fish [bāligh].1823 Two bones each about 3 inches (aīlīk) long, come out in a line with its ears; these it shakes when taken, producing an extraordinary noise, whence, seemingly, people have called it kalah [or galah].

The flesh of Hindūstān fishes is very savoury; they have no odour (aīd) or tiresomeness.1824 They are surprisingly active. On one occasion when people coming, had flung a net across a stream, leaving its two edges half a yard above the water, most fish passed by leaping a yard above it. In many rivers are little fish which fling themselves a yard or more out of the water if there be harshFol. 282b. noise or sound of feet.

The mango (P. anbah) is one of the fruits peculiar to Hindūstān. Hindūstānīs pronounce the b in its name as though no vowel followed it (i.e. Sans. anb);1826 this being awkward to utter, some people call the fruit [P.] naghzak1827 as Khwāja Khusrau does:—

Mangoes when good, are very good, but, many as are eaten, few are first-rate. They are usually plucked unripe and ripened in the house. Unripe, they make excellent condiments (qātīq), are good also preserved in syrup.1829 Taking it altogether, the mango is the best fruit of Hindūstān. Some so praise it as to give it preference over all fruits except the musk-melon (T. qāwūn), but such praise outmatches it. It resembles the kārdī peach.1830 It ripens in the rains. It is eaten in two ways: one is to squeeze it to a pulp, make a hole in it, and suck out the juice,—the other, to peel and eat it like the kārdī peach. Its tree grows very large1831 and has a leaf somewhat resembling the peach-tree’s. The trunk is ill-looking and ill-shaped, but in Bengāl and Gujrāt is heard of as growing handsome (khūb).1832

The plantain (Sans. kelā, Musa sapientum) is another.1833 An Fol. 283.‘Arab calls it mauz.1834 Its tree is not very tall, indeed is not to be called a tree, since it is something between a grass and a tree. Its leaf is a little like that of the amān-qarā1835 but grows about 2 yards (qārī]) long and nearly one broad. Out of the middle of its leaves rises, heart-like, a bud which resembles a sheep’s heart. As each leaf (petal) of this bud expands, there grows at its base a row of 6 or 7 flowers which become the plantains. These flowers become visible with the lengthening of the heart-like shoot and the opening of the petals of the bud. The tree is understood to flower once only.1836 The fruit has two pleasant qualities, one that it peels easily, the other that it has neither stone nor fibre.1837 It is rather longer and thinner than the egg-plant (P. bādanjān; Solanum melongena). It is not very sweet; the Bengāl plantain (i.e. chīnī-champa) is, however, said to be very sweet. The plantain is a very good-looking tree, its broad, broad, leaves of beautiful green having an excellent appearance.

The anblī (H. imlī, Tamarindus indica, the tamarind) is another. By this name (anblī) people call the khurmā-i-hind (Indian date-tree).1838 It has finely-cut leaves (leaflets), precisely like those of the (T.) būīā, except that they are not so finely-cut.1839 It is a very good-looking tree, giving dense shade. It grows wild in masses too.

The (Beng.) mahuwā (Bassia latifolia) is another.1840 People call it also (P.) gul-chikān (or chigān, distilling-flower). This also is a very large tree. Most of the wood in the houses of HindūstānīsFol. 283b. is from it. Spirit (‘araq) is distilled from its flowers,1841 not only so, but they are dried and eaten like raisins, and from them thus dried, spirit is also extracted. The dried flowers taste just like kishmish;1842 they have an ill-flavour. The flowers are not bad in their natural state1843; they are eatable. The mahuwā grows wild also. Its fruit is tasteless, has rather a large seed with a thin husk, and from this seed, again,1844 oil is extracted.

The mimusops (Sans. khirnī, Mimusops kauki) is another. Its tree, though not very large, is not small. The fruit is yellow and thinner than the red jujube (T. chīkdā, Elæagnus angustifolia). It has just the grape’s flavour, but a rather bad after-taste; it is not bad, however, and is eatable. The husk of its stoneæ is thin.

The (H.) kamrak (Beng. kamrunga, Averrhoa carambola) is another. Its fruit is five-sided, about as large as the ‘ain-ālū1846 and some 3 inches long. It ripens to yellow; gathered unripe, it is very bitter; gathered ripe, its bitterness has become sub-acid, not bad, not wanting in pleasantness.1847

The jack-fruit (H. kadhil, B. kanthal, Artocarpus integrifolia) is another.1848 This is a fruit of singular form and flavour; it looks Fol. 284.like a sheep’s stomach stuffed and made into a haggis (gīpa);1849 and it is sickeningly-sweet. Inside it are filbert-like stones1850 which, on the whole, resemble dates, but are round, not long, and have softer substance; these are eaten. The jack-fruit is very adhesive; for this reason people are said to oil mouth and hands before eating of it. It is heard of also as growing, not only on the branches of its tree, but on trunk and root too.1851 One would say that the tree was all hung round with haggises.1852

The monkey-jack (H. badhal, B. burhul, Artocarpus lacoocha) is another. The fruit may be of the size of a quince (var. apple). Its smell is not bad.1853 Unripe it is a singularly tasteless and empty1854 thing; when ripe, it is not so bad. It ripens soft, can be pulled to pieces and eaten anywhere, tastes very much like a rotten quince, and has an excellent little austere flavour.

The lote-fruit (Sans. ber, Zizyphus jujuba) is another. Its Persian name is understood to be kanār.1855 It is of several kinds: of one the fruit is larger than the plum (ālūcha)1856; another is shaped like the Ḥusainī grape. Most of them are not very good; we saw one in Bāndīr (Gūālīār) that was really good. The lote-tree sheds its leaves under the Signs S̤aur and Jauzā (Bull and Twins), burgeons under Sarat̤ān and Asad (Crab and Lion) which are the true rainy-season,—then becoming fresh and green, and it ripens its fruit under Dalū and Ḥaut (Bucket i.e. Aquarius, and Fish).

The (Sans.) karaūndā (Carissa carandas, the corinda) is another. It grows in bushes after the fashion of the (T.) chīka of our country.1857 but the chīka grows on mountains, the karaūndā on theFol. 284b. plains. In flavour it is like the rhubarb itself,1858 but is sweeter and less juicy.

The (Sans.) pānīyālā (Flacourtia cataphracta)1859 is another. It is larger than the plum (ālūcha) and like the red-apple unripe.1860 It is a little austere and is good. The tree is taller than the pomegranate’s; its leaf is like that of the almond-tree but smaller.

The (Sans.) āmlā (Phyllanthus emblica, the myrobalan-tree) is another. This also is a five-sided fruit.1862 It looks like the unblown cotton-pod. It is an astringent and ill-flavoured thing, but confiture made of it is not bad. It is a wholesome fruit. Its tree is of excellent form and has very minute leaves.

The (H.) chirūnjī (Buchanania latifolia)1863 is another. This tree had been understood to grow in the hills, but I knew later about it, because there were three or four clumps of it in our gardens. It is much like the mahuwā. Its kernel is not bad, a thing between the walnut and the almond, not bad! rather smaller than the pistachio and round; people put it in custards (P. pālūda) and sweetmeats (Ar. ḥalwa).

The date-palm (P. khurmā, Phœnix dactylifera) is another. This is not peculiar to Hindūstān, but is here described because it is not in those countries (Tramontana). It grows in Lamghān also.1864 Its branches (i.e. leaves) grow from just one place at its top; its leaves (i.e. leaflets) grow on both sides of the branches (midribs) from neck (būīn) to tip; its trunk is rough and ill-coloured; Fol. 285.its fruit is like a bunch of grapes, but much larger. People say that the date-palm amongst vegetables resembles an animal in two respects: one is that, as, if an animal’s head be cut off, its life is taken, so it is with the date-palm, if its head is cut off, it dries off; the other is that, as the offspring of animals is not produced without the male, so too with the date-palm, it gives no good fruit unless a branch of the male-tree be brought into touch with the female-tree. The truth of this last matter is not known (to me). The above-mentioned head of the date-palm is called its cheese. The tree so grows that where its leaves come out is cheese-white, the leaves becoming green as they lengthen. This white part, the so-called cheese, is tolerable eating, not bad, much like the walnut. People make a wound in the cheese, and into this wound insert a leaf(let), in such a way that all liquid flowing from the wound runs down it.1865 The tip of the leaflet is set over the mouth of a pot suspended to the tree in such a way that it collects whatever liquor is yielded by the wound.

This liquor is rather pleasant if drunk at once; if drunk after two or three days, people say it is quite exhilarating (kaifīyat). Once when I had gone to visit Bārī,1866 and made anFol. 285b. excursion to the villages on the bank of the Chaṃbal-river, we met in with people collecting this date-liquor in the valley-bottom. A good deal was drunk; no hilarity was felt; much must be drunk, seemingly, to produce a little cheer.

The coco-nut palm (P. nārgīl, Cocos nucifera) is another. An ‘Arab gives it Arabic form1867 and says nārjīl; Hindūstān people say nālīr, seemingly by popular error.1868 Its fruit is the Hindī-nut from which black spoons (qarā qāshūq) are made and the larger ones of which serve for guitar-bodies. The coco-palm has general resemblance to the date-palm, but has more, and more glistening leaves. Like the walnut, the coco-nut has a green outer husk; but its husk is of fibre on fibre. All ropes for ships and boats and also cord for sewing boat-seams are heard of as made from these husks. The nut, when stripped of its husk, near one end shews a triangle of hollows, two of which are solid, the third a nothing (būsh), easily pierced. Before the kernel forms, there is fluid inside; people pierce the soft hollow and drink this; it tastes like date-palm cheese in solution, and is not bad.

The (Sans.) tāṛ (Borassus flabelliformis, the Palmyra-palm) is another. Its branches (i.e. leaves) also are quite at its top. Just asFol. 286. with the date-palm, people hang a pot on it, take its juice and drink it. They call this liquor tāṛī;1869 it is said to be more exhilarating than date liquor. For about a yard along its branches (i.e. leaf-stems)1870 there are no leaves; above this, at the tip of the branch (stem), 30 or 40 open out like the spread palm of the hand, all from one place. These leaves approach a yard in length. People often write Hindī characters on them after the fashion of account rolls (daftar yūsūnlūq).

The orange (Ar. nāranj, Citrus aurantium) and orange-like fruits are others of Hindūstān.1871 Oranges grow well in the Lamghānāt, Bajaur and Sawād. The Lamghānāt one is smallish, has a navel,1872 is very agreeable, fragile and juicy. It is not at all like the orange of Khurāsān and those parts, being so fragile that many spoil before reaching Kābul from the Lamghānāt which may be 13-14 yīghāch (65-70 miles), while the Astarābād orange, by reason of its thick skin and scant juice, carries with Fol. 286b.less damage from there to Samarkand, some 270-280 yīghāch.1873 The Bajaur orange is about as large as a quince, very juicy and more acid than other oranges. Khwāja Kalān once said to me, “We counted the oranges gathered from a single tree of this sort in Bajaur and it mounted up to 7,000.” It had been always in my mind that the word nāranj was an Arabic form;1874 it would seem to be really so, since every-one in Bajaur and Sawād says (P.) nārang.1875

The citron (P. turunj,1877 C. medica) is another of the fruits resembling the orange. Bajaurīs and Sawādīs call it bālang and hence give the name bālang-marabbā to its marmalade (marabbā) confiture. In Hindūstān people call the turunj bajaurī.1878 There are two kinds of turunj: one is sweet, flavourless and nauseating, of no use for eating but with peel that may be good for marmalade; it has the same sickening sweetness as the Lamghānāt turunj; the other, that of Hindūstān and Bajaur, is acid, quite deliciously acid, and makes excellent sherbet, well-flavoured, and wholesome drinking. Its size may be that of the Khusrawī melon; it has a thick skin, wrinkled and uneven, with one end thinner and beaked. It is of a deeper yellow than the orange (nāranj). Its tree has no trunk, is rather low, grows in bushes, and has a largerFol. 287. leaf than the orange.

The sangtāra1879 is another fruit resembling the orange (nāranj). It is like the citron (turunj) in colour and form, but has both ends of its skin level;1880 also it is not rough and is somewhat the smaller fruit. Its tree is large, as large as the apricot (aūrūq), with a leaf like the orange’s. It is a deliciously acid fruit, making a very pleasant and wholesome sherbet. Like the lime it is a powerful stomachic, but not weakening like the orange (nāranj).

The large lime which they call (H.) gal-gal1881 in Hindūstān is another fruit resembling the orange. It has the shape of a goose’s egg, but unlike that egg, does not taper to the ends. Its skin is smooth like the sangtāra’s; it is remarkably juicy.