The insult conveyed by the words of the Sultan Kai-kubad, when speaking of the dead leader of the Mughals, lay in the fact that the golail was not a soldier’s weapon, but merely a sporting implement: “No one would condescend to shoot an arrow at a dead body; it is only a pellet-ball that is fit for such (carrion) as this.”[199] We need not pursue the matter further: in the primitive and simple golail is found the musket carried by the Caliph Harun er-Reshid. From a passage in the “Chachnama,” given in Barnes’ “Travels into Bokhara,” it is clear that the Moslems in their invasion of India relied upon incendiaries to meet the attacks made upon them with elephants, which are very much afraid of fire. At the battle of Alor, 712, already mentioned, the Moslems “filled their pipes” (_hukkaha-e atish bazi_ = grenades or siphons) “and returned with them to dart fire at the elephants” (i. 67). This fact goes far to explain a difficulty raised by the words _toofung_ (musket) and _tope_ (cannon) found in some MSS., in place of the _khudung_ (arrow) and _nuft_ (naphtha) given in other copies of Ferishta’s account of the battle fought near Peshawur in 1008. He says: “On a sudden the elephant upon which the prince who commanded the Hindus rode, becoming unruly from the effects of the _naphtha balls_ and the flights of _arrows_, turned and fled. This circumstance produced a panic among the Hindus, who, seeing themselves deserted by their general, gave way and fled also.”[200] The best critics reject the readings _musket_ and _cannon_ in this passage. These words were unknown to other Indian historians, and the circumstances of the case make the use of an incendiary exceedingly probable. “I am slow in believing this premature use of artillery,” says Gibbon; “I must desire to scrutinise first the text and then the authority of Ferishta.” “These readings must be due to interpolators,” adds Professor Bury.[201] “It appears likely,” says General Briggs, the translator of Ferishta, “that Babar was the first invader who introduced great guns into Upper India, in 1526, so that the words _tope_ and _toofung_ have been probably introduced by ignorant transcribers of the modern copies of this work, which are in general very faulty throughout.”[202] Sir H. M. Elliot says: “The _Tarikh-i Yamini_, the _Jami’u-t Tawarikh_ of Rashidu-d Din, the _Tarikh-i Guzida_, Abu’l Fida, the _Tabakat-i Nasiri_, the _Rauzatu’-s Safa_, the _Tarikh-i Alfi_ and the _Tabakat-i Akbari_, though almost all of them notice this important engagement ... and mention the capture of thirty elephants, yet none of them speak of either _naft_ or _tope_.”[203]