wild elephants,[24] but he also hunted with trained falcons and
leopards, owning no less than nine hundred hunting leopards. He was
not fond of battue; he enjoyed the excitement and exertion of the
actual hunt as a means for exercise and recreation, for training the
eye and quickening the blood. Akbar took pleasure also in games.
Besides chess, cards and other games, fights between animals may
especially be mentioned, of which elephant fights were the most
common, but there were also contests between camels, buffaloes, cocks,
and even frogs, sparrows and spiders.

[Footnote 24: M. Elphinstone, 519]

Usually, however, the whole day was filled up from the first break of
dawn for Akbar with affairs of government and audiences, for every one
who had a request or a grievance to bring forward could have access to
Akbar, and he showed the same interest in the smallest incidents as in
the greatest affairs of state. He also held courts of justice wherever
he happened to be residing. No criminal could be punished there
without his knowledge and no sentence of death executed until Akbar
had given the command three times.[25]

[Footnote 25: J.T. Wheeler, IV, I, 168.]

Not until after sunset did the Emperor's time of recreation begin.
Since he only required three hours of sleep[26] he devoted most of the
night to literary, artistic and scientific occupations. Especially
poetry and music delighted his heart. He collected a large library in
his palace and drew the most famous scholars and poets to his court.
The most important of these were the brothers Abul Faiz (with the _nom
de plume_ Faizî) and Abul Fazl who have made Akbar's fame known to the