Note 84 — The Fifteenth New Year’s Feast after the Auspicious Accession

On the 3rd Urdībihis͟ht I rode to see the Sukh Nāg.84 It is a beautiful summer residence (īlāq). This waterfall is in the midst of a valley, and flows down from a lofty place. There was still ice on its sides. The entertainment of Thursday was arranged for in that flower-land, and I was delighted at drinking my usual cups on the edge of the water. In this stream I saw a bird like a sāj.85 A sāj is of a black colour and has white spots, while this bird is of the same colour as a bulbul with white spots, and it dives and remains for a long time underneath, and then comes up from a different place. I ordered them to catch and bring two or three of these birds, that I might ascertain whether they were waterfowl and were web-footed, or had open feet like land birds. They caught two and brought them. One died immediately, and the other lived for a day. Its feet were not webbed like a duck’s. I ordered Nādiru-l-ʿaṣr Ustād Manṣūr to draw its likeness. The Kashmiris call it galkar86—that is, “water sāj.”