1 HISTORY OF THE SIKHS.
2 43
3 Bis precepts, example, and writings, that lie was an
4 inspired teacher. Me harangued the people, who
5 collected about him wherever he went; and he em¬
6 ployed his leisure hours in composition. As an
7 example of his unbending character it may be
8 mentioned, that he was invited by a Rajah to re¬
9 nounce his inode of life and austere habits, and to
10 .accept the-enjoyment of all human luxuries. But
11 all such offers were made in vain. By his powerful
12 eloquence and arguments he even converted this
13 Rajah, and resided with him during a considerable
14 length of time, in the course of which he was em¬
15 ployed in composing the “ Fran Sunculee,” a sort of
16 text book for the guidance of his followers. This
17 was an early production ; it was finished soon after
18 he had assumed the life and habits of a fukeer. and
19 was afterwards incorporated in the first part of the
20 Grunth. Miracles are attributed to Manuk by his
21 followers, but he never pretended to any himself.
22 Filling the tank with water may be considered as
23 one, and was. the cause of Boodha becoming his
24 follower. Malcolm relates, that “ when Manuk
25 was quite a youth, and employed to tend cattle in
26 the fields, he happened to repose himself under the
27 shade of a tree, and as the sun declined towards
28 the west, its rays fell on his face, when a large
29 black snake advancing to the spot where he lay,
30 raised itself from the ground and interposed its
31 spread hood between Nanuk and the sun’s rays.
32 This was observed by the chief of the district, and
33 from the great veneration in which the snake is