[1741] A string of camels contains from five to seven, or, in poetry, even more (Vullers, ii, 728, sermone poetico series decem camelorum). The item of food compared is corn only (būghūz) and takes no account therefore of the elephant’s green food.
[1742] The Ency. Br. states that the horn seldom exceeds a foot in length; there is one in the B.M. measuring 18 inches.
[1743] āb-khẉura kishtī, water-drinker’s boat, in which name kishtī may be used with reference to shape as boat is in sauce-boat. Erskine notes that rhinoceros-horn is supposed to sweat on approach of poison.
[1744] aīlīk, Pers. trs. angusht, finger, each seemingly representing about one inch, a hand’s thickness, a finger’s breadth.
[1745] lit. hand (qūl) and leg (būt).
[1746] The anatomical details by which Bābur supports this statement are difficult to translate, but his grouping of the two animals is in agreement with the modern classification of them as two of the three Ungulata vera, the third being the tapir (Fauna of British India:—Mammals, Blanford 467 and, illustration, 468).
[1747] De Courteille (ii, 190) reads kūmūk, osseuse; Erskine reads gūmūk, marrow.
[1748] Index s.n. rhinoceros.
[1749] Bos bubalus.
[1750] “so as to grow into the flesh” (Erskine, p. 317).