Note 27 — The Eighteenth New Year’s Feast after the Auspicious Accession

At this time I enjoyed myself for a day with hunting nīlgāw. Whilst I was hunting I saw a snake the length of which was 2½ yards, and its girth equal to three cubits (dast). He had swallowed half a hare, and was in the act of swallowing the other half. When the huntsmen picked him up and brought him to me, the hare fell out of his mouth. I ordered them to put it into its mouth again, but they could not do it, however much they exerted themselves; but by using great violence the corner of his mouth was torn to pieces. After this I ordered them to open its belly. Thereupon another entire hare came out. They call this kind of snake chītal27 in Hindustan, and it grows so large that it swallows a hog-deer (kotāh-pācha) entire; but it is not poisonous, and does not bite. One day during the same hunt I shot a female nīlgāw, and two fully formed young ones were found inside. As I heard that the flesh of nīlgāw fawns was delicate and delicious, I ordered the royal cooks to prepare a dū-piyāza28 (a kind of rich fricassee). Certainly it was not without flavour.