"The author of these poems, Mamlic Arnir Shahi, the son of Malic Jemaluddin Firozkohi, a nobleman of high rank and fortune as well as great literary attainments, was born in Sebzwar, A. H. 786. He passed a part of his life at the courts of Baisankar (the son of Shahrukh Mirza, and grandson of Tamerlane) and of his son Abul Kasim Baber, during which time he held appointments of the highest trust and emolument, and was universally caressed. But, taking offense at an expression of Sultan Baber's, which he conceived reflected on his father, he quitted the court in disgust, and passed the remainder of his life in the cultivation of the sister arts, poetry, painting, and music in all of which he eminently excelled. He was also unequalled in penmanship. At the age of seventy years be died in Asterabad, during the reign of Baber, A. H. 856, and was buried in the suburbs of his native city, Sebzwar, in a mausoleum erected by his ancestors. "Mir Ali, who transcribed this book, was the most excellent penman of his time. He was born in the reign of Sultan Hussein Mirza Bahudur, the son of Mansur, and great grandson of Omar Sheikh, the second son of Tamerlane. He was a learned man and good poet, and took the Takhulas (poetical title) most appropriate to his greatest accomplishments, of Al Cateb, or 'the Scribe.' He was the pupil of Sultan Ali, but far exceeded his master in calligraphy. An entire book written by him is justly esteemed a great treasure in the East. "On the back of the first page of this most beautiful manuscript are the autographs of the Emperors of Hindustan, Jehangir (the son of the great Acber) and his son Shah Jehan; there is also the seal of Aurangzeb, the son of Shah Jehun. Jehangir dates the acquiring possession of this treasure A. H. 1025, and Shah Jehun, A. H. 1037. "A collection of mythological drawings (brought from a fort in Bhutan, where they were taken as plunder) exceedingly well coloured, and richly illumined. Some of the deities resemble those of the Tartars, delineated by the traveller Pallas; others again are pure Hindu and many Chinese; but the most frequent are the representations of Baudh, exactly as depicted in the paintings and temples at Ceylon. The religion of Bhutan and Neipal seems to be like the local situation of those countries, the link of connection between that of the Hindus, with its different schisms, and that of the Chinese with the Tartar superstructure. "With this book of drawings are several rolls of Bhutan Scripture, very well stamped by stereotype blocks of wood. Some of the blocks accompanied the drawings; they are sharply and neatly cut in a kind of Sanscrit character, and are objects of great curiosity, as, by the accounts of the natives, this mode of printing has been in use for time immemorial."