From the Khas Mahal we proceed to a large quadrangular building known as the Mint. It is a kind of barbican with a large number of dark vaults and a hall described as the Hall of Account. The writer of that rare work, The Wanderings of a Pilgrim, states : " The taksal (the mint) is at this place ; in it rupees were first coined ; unlike the circular rupees of the present day, those coined by Akbar are square ; he also coined square gold mohurs and eight anna pieces of the same form. The square rupee, if without a blemish, is reckoned of great value ; it is used in conjuring the truth out of thieves, who are much afraid of it, and often confess the truth from a belief in its virtues. If a rich native can obtain one of Akbar's rupees, or, what is better, an Akbarabadee gold mohur, he puts it away with his hoard of riches, firmly believing that by its virtue robbers will he prevented from discovering his gold." Forbes, in his Oriental Memoirs, tells us that Akbar restricted the coinage of gold to four places—Agra, Bengal, Ahmedabad, and Cabul. Silver coin was allowed to be struck in fourteen cities, including the preceding four ; mints for copper coin were appointed in twenty-eight cities.
" Great attention was paid to assaying and refining the various metals and to every department of the mint and treasury. The gold and silver intended for the current coin of the realm, when brought to the greatest degree of purity, was committed to the most celebrated artists, to give each specimen the perfection of beauty. It is well known that coins, medals, and signets of the Mahometan princes have no portrait or armorial bearings cut in the die from which the coin is to be stamped, as is generally practised in Europe : it is usually impressed with the name of the reigning monarch, the date of the year in the Hegira, and perhaps some appropriate or flattering title. In the reign of Akbar were struck those immense gold masses, distinguished as the immortal coins. The largest, called Henseh, weighed
upwards of one hundred tolahs, in value one hundred lual jilaly mohurs, not much short of two hundred pounds sterling, estimating the gold mohur at fifteen silver rupees of half a crown each ; others were of half that value ; from which they diminished to the small round mohur, valued at nine silver rupees ; some of these were marked with flowers, especially the tulip and the rose, but never with the represen tation of any animated form. In the place of such emblems, Akbar had moral sentences and tetrastichs from the Persian poets, the praises of the Almighty, or his own titles, engraved on the die in a most beautiful manner." On the reverse of the Henseh was written : " The best coin is that which is employed in supplying men with the necessaries of life, and that benefits the companions in the road to God." On some of the smaller coins were the following inscriptions in Persian characters, some of them ornamented with a tulip and wild rose : " God is greatest ! " on the reverse, " 0 Defender," " God is greatest ! mighty is His glory ! " with the date.
As we leave the Mint to return to Birbal's house, where we are going to spend the night, the sun begins to sink swiftly down the horizon, and the people returning from the fields drive their cattle through the deserted streets, and flocks of goats come up through the lanes, and crop the bushes that are now springing from the palaces of Akbar. Then the sky, soft and tender as an Italian one, is tremulous with starlight, and the moon rises above the horizon like a ball of fire. Swiftly she mounts the sky and whitens the country below, and spreads sheets of light over the dark mosques and deserted palaces of the city. This is India not of heat, toil, and cruel separation, but of romance and beauty. But the very beauty only lends itself to sad thoughts, for as we gaze on the boundless starlit depths over head, there comes to us