With the heats came the news that Shaibāq Khān was coming up into Aūrā-tīpā. Hereupon, as the land is level about Dikh-kat, we crossed the Āb-burdan pass into the Macha hill-country.[594] Āb-burdan is the last village of Macha; just below it a spring sends its water down (to the Zar-afshān); above the stream is included in Macha, below it depends on Palghar. There is a tomb at the spring-head. I had a rock at the side of the spring-head shaped (_qātīrīb_) and these three couplets inscribed on it;— I have heard that Jamshīd, the magnificent, Inscribed on a rock at a fountain-head[595] 'Many men like us have taken breath at this fountain, And have passed away in the twinkling of an eye; We took the world by courage and might, But we took it not with us to the tomb.' There is a custom in that hill-country of cutting verses and things[596] on the rocks. While we were in Macha, Mullā Hijrī,[597] the poet, came from Ḥiṣār and waited on me. At that time I composed the following opening lines;— Let your portrait flatter you never so much, than it you are more (_āndīn artūqsīn_); Men call you their Life (_Jān_), than Life, without doubt, you are more (_jāndīn artūqsīn_).[598] After plundering round about in Aūrā-tīpā, Shaibāq Khān retired.[599] While he was up there, we, disregarding the fewness [Sidenote: Fol. 99b.] of our men and their lack of arms, left our impedimenta (_aūrūq_) in Macha, crossed the Āb-burdan pass and went to Dikh-kat so that, gathered together close at hand, we might miss no chance on one of the next nights. He, however, retired straightway; we went back to Macha. It passed through my mind that to wander from mountain to mountain, homeless and houseless, without country or abiding-place, had nothing to recommend it. 'Go you right off to The Khān,' I said to myself. Qāsim Beg was not willing for this move, apparently being uneasy because, as has been told, he had put Mughūls to death at Qarā-būlāq, by way of example. However much we urged it, it was not to be! He drew off for Ḥiṣār with all his brothers and his whole following. We for our part, crossed the Āb-burdan pass and set forward for The Khān's presence in Tāshkīnt. (_f. Bābur with The Khān._) In the days when Taṃbal had drawn his army out and gone into the Blacksmith's-dale,[600] men at the top of his army, such as Muḥ. _Dūghlāt_, known as _Ḥiṣārī_, and his younger brother Ḥusain, and also Qaṃbar-`alī, the Skinner, conspired to attempt his life. When he discovered this weighty matter, they, unable to remain with him, had gone to The Khān. The Feast of Sacrifices (`Īd-i-qurbān) fell for us in Shāh-rukhiya (Ẕū'l-ḥijja 10th.-June 16th. 1502).