'A General Sketch of the History of Persia' [‎186] (237/636)

186 HISTOEY OF PERSIA.
ever came to visit me, I received with great hauteur
and dignity. At eighteen I became vain of my abilities,
and was very fond of riding and hunting. I passed
much of my time in reading the Kuran, and playing at
chess, and was also very fond of horsemanship.' 1
At about this time a change came over his habits of
thought; he repented of his past life, left off playing
at chess, and made a vow never to injure any living
creature. The future destroyer of thousands of his
fellow men was seized with a feeling of tender regard
for the most insignificant of God's creatures, and when
the kind-hearted youth once unintentionally trod upon
an ant he was so deeply grieved, that he felt as if his
foot had lost all its power.
Such was this young man's character when, in 1355,
at the age of twenty, his father, Teragay, made over to
him a number of tents, sheep, camels, and servants,
and, in short, gave him a separate establishment. Then
it was that his energetic mind found other work than
meditations on Buddhistic vows; he began to long for
some wider field of action, and to form plans of rebel
lion against what he considered the tyranny of the
Jagatai Sult&n. He could not then find any one to
join him; but another turbulent spirit, named Amir
1 Timfir's Memoirs. I believe there is no doubt as to their au
thenticity. The manuscript, brought from India by Major Davy,
is an octavo volume of four hundred and fifty-seven pages, in the
Persian hand. It begins with Timor's birth, and ends in his forty-
first year, omitting the last thirty years of his life. The manuscript
was found in the library of Ja'afar, Hakim of Yemen, by Abu Ta i
ul Hueaini, in the Turki language, and was translated into Persian;
and into English, by Major C. Stewart, in 1830.