The monkey
killed Asgur Allee Khan, sir; and no man ever escapes death or misery
who wilfully kills one. Moomtaz-od Dowla might, sir, have been now
King of Oude had his father not shot that monkey."
"But I thought," said I, "it was the _hanoomaun_, or long-tailed
monkey, that was held sacred by the Hindoos?"--"Sir," said Bukhtawur
Sing, "both are alike sacred.* Nuseer-od Deen Hyder, the predecessor
of Mahommed Allee Shah, went one day shooting in the dilkhoosha park.
Several of the long-tailed monkeys came and sat upon a mango-tree
near him. He could not resist the temptation, and shot several of
them, one after another, with ball. He returned to the palace; but
had not been home more than three hours, when he and his favourite
wife, the Kooduseea Begum,** had a fierce quarrel, in which both
became insane; she was so enraged that she took poison forthwith,
and, in her agony, actually spit up her liver, which had been torn to
pieces by the force of the poison! The King could not stand the
horrible sight, and ran off and hid himself in the race-stand, near
which you fell and broke your thigh-bone in April last; there he
remained shut up till she died. He had had warning, sir, for a few
months after his accession to the throne; I attended him and his
minister, Aga Meer, on a visit to the garden, called padshah baag, on
the opposite side of the river: he had a gun with him, and, seeing a
monkey on a tree, he ordered the prime minister to try his hand at
it.
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