Page 151 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

AN IMPERIAL DESPOT IN DRESS AND UNDRESS 151

<( c I am a King; you shall be welcome—Christians,
Moors, Jews—all shall be welcome.’ He medled not with
faith. They came all in love, and he would protect them
from wrong. They lived in his safety and none should
oppress them.
“ And this often repeated, but in extreme drunkenness :
he fell to weeping and to divers passions and so kept us
till midnight.”
Jehangir, besides being a debauchee, was, there can be no
doubt, a poseur. He seems to have deliberately set out to
impress Roe by displays of amiable personal qualities.
In the drunken fit just described the idea clearly was to
create a tradition of his magnanimity and toleration.
Some days later Roe was given a highly theatrical demon­
stration of his humility.
Entering the royal presence Roe found Jehangir sitting
on his throne and a beggar at his feet—“ a poore silly
old man, all asht, ragd and patcht, with a young roague
attending on him.” This gosain, or fakir, for such no
doubt he was, presented the Emperor with a cake, cooked
on ashes, made of coarse grain, “ which the King accepted
most willingly, and breaking one bit ate it, which a dainty
mouth could scarce have done.” Afterwards Jehangir’s
meal was brought in and “ whatsoever he took to eat he
brake and gave the beggar half, after many strange humili­
ations and charities, rising the old wretch up, he being
unable, he took him up in his arms which no cleanly body
durst have touched. Embracing him and three times lay­
ing his hand on his heart, calling him father, he left him
and all us, and me, in admiration of such a virtue in a
heathen prince.”
Roe seems to have conceived a real regard for the Em-