Note 131 — The Thirteenth New Year’s Feast

On this day it was made known to me in the contents of a report from Bahādur K., the Governor of Qandahar, that in the Hijrī year 1026—that is, last year—the number of mice in Qandahar and the neighbourhood was so great that they destroyed all the crops and grain and cultivation and the fruits of the trees of the province, so that there had been no produce. They (the mice) cut off the ears of corn and ate them. When the cultivators gathered their crops, before they were threshed and cleaned, another131 half was destroyed, so that perhaps one-fourth of the crops only came to hand. In the same way no vestige was left of the melons (melon-beds) or garden produce. After some time the mice disappeared.