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ELfflU JAN'S STOEY 
 
 THE PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTEM QUEEN 
 
 WILLIAM KNIGHTON, LL.D. 
 
 ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER IN OUDH : 
 
 AUTHOR OP 'PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN KING,' 'VILLAaB LIFE IN OUDH, 
 ETC. 
 
 ^ LONDON: 
 
 LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, ROBERTS, & GREEN. 
 1865. 
 
 The right of tramlatiov in renerveA. 
 

 
 09 K(o 
 
^a. 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 Elihu Jan is not a fictitious character. She 
 was brought up in the Court of Lucknow 
 from her seventh year, as related in the first 
 chapter of the following work. She was 
 for many years hookah attendant to the 
 queen of Oudh, and of course thus became 
 acquainted with much that happened in the 
 palace. After the mutiny, she was first an 
 ayah in the household of Mr. Johannes, the 
 wealthy merchant of Lucknow, and sub- 
 sequently entered my wife's service in the 
 same capacity. She has been with us now 
 nearly three years, is still in our service, and, 
 so far as I have been able to verify her 
 
 -12752 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 accounts of the queen's private life, I have 
 found them to be true. I therefore beheve 
 the truth of the whole, and I have narrated 
 it as much as possible in her own words, 
 and with her own reflections — allowances 
 being made for the translation from Urdu 
 into Enghsh. 
 
 Himalaya Club, Mussoorie: 
 June 1864. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAP. PA»« 
 
 I. Pebsonal Eeminiscencbs 1 
 
 II. The Queen's daily Life 16 
 
 III. The Skeleton in the Closet . . . .29 
 
 IV. Minor Troubles 42 
 
 V. Bahara Nissa 54 
 
 VI. New Year's Day 71 
 
 Vn. Minor Kbligious Festivals and Easts . . 79 
 
 VIII. The Mohurrim 84 
 
 IX. Lady Fatima 100 
 
 X. Prejudices and Superstitions . . ... 107 
 
 XI. Born in the Purple 114 
 
 XII. Holy Matrimony. 125 
 
 XIII. The Angel of Death 136 
 
 XIV. Amusements at Court 144 
 
 XV. The Queen's Favourite Story . . . .164 
 
 XVI. Conclusion 178 
 
Digitized by tine Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 witii funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 littp://www.arcliive.org/details/eliliujansstoryorOOknigricli 
 
ELIHU JAN'S STOEY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 
 
 The earliest thing I can remember is that 
 my father, Ashabad Khan, lived with his 
 two brothers in our village, long, long ago, 
 some fifteen or sixteen miles from Lucknow. 
 The cottage was divided into three tenements, 
 each of which had its separate door, and was 
 shut ofi* from the rest by its own partition 
 wall. The lands the three brothers cultivated 
 were crown lands, belonging to tlie king at 
 Lucknow, and it was not without difficulty 
 that the rent was paid. It was not the rent 
 alone that made the difficulty, but the 
 exactions of the various king's servants, 
 who claimed sums as their rights over and 
 B 
 
2 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 above the rent, which my father and uncles 
 were afraid to refuse them. My mother had 
 died at my birth, and my only female com- 
 panion was a cousin, the daughter of a 
 younger brother of my father, who was five 
 or six years older than I, and who took 
 care of me. 
 
 At length, what vdth exactions, and what 
 with bad crops, things went from bad to 
 worse, and one year the Sepoys came down 
 upon us to force my father and uncles to pay 
 the rents due, for they were much in arrears. 
 My father and uncles ran away, and I and 
 my cousin were taken oJBT as slaves to the 
 palace in Lucknow. I was about seven 
 years of age, and I am an old woman now 
 of near thirty, but I cannot tell exactly how 
 old I am, or how old I was. This I know, 
 that my father was a good Soonny * Mussul- 
 man, and that at the court they brought me 
 up as a Sheeah ; but I have always been an 
 unhappy creature — ^unhappy and miserable — 
 since the time when I killed my mother at 
 
 * The Soonnies are the Protestants ; the Sheeahs, the 
 Koman Catholics of Moslemism. 
 
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 5 
 
 my birth. What luck or good fortune can 
 the child expect that kills its mother? 
 
 Arrived at the palace, we were washed 
 and dressed, and taken into the queen's 
 apartments. I was speechless with astonish- 
 ment at the grandeur of the rooms. The 
 ceiling was beautifully painted, the walls 
 were richly ornamented with large mirrors 
 and gilt edgings. Chandeliers hung from 
 the roof, and the floor was covered with a 
 large carpet, and in the centre of the carpet 
 was a white cloth. Upon the upper end of 
 this white cloth was a smaller and richer 
 carpet, with cushions, and a large pillow for 
 the back gorgeously trimmed with thick 
 gold fringe. The cushions were covered 
 with crimson velvet, with flowers of gold 
 thread worked on them. With her back 
 leaning against the large round pillow sat 
 the queen smoking her hookah. She was 
 dressed in light-coloured clothes, all of one 
 colour. She preferred light blue, lavender, 
 or straw-coloured garments, with rich em- 
 broidery, and she wore much jewellery, nose- 
 rings, ear-rings, bracelets, anklets, and such- 
 
4 PEIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 like, all adorned profusely with precious 
 stones. The queen was considered by us 
 natives as very handsome; whether Eu- 
 ropeans would think so or not, I do not 
 know, for your ways and thoughts are not 
 as ours. She was of the middle height, and 
 at that time hght and cheerful ; not gloomy 
 and sorrowful, as she was afterwards, when 
 the kingdom was taken away from her son, 
 and when she went to London to see the 
 Enghsh queen, and ask for her son's kingdom 
 back again. She had many sorrows after 
 that time. I speak of the time when her 
 husband was alive and on the throne, and 
 when she was young and happy. Her com- 
 plexion, when I first saw her, was a clear 
 yellow. She was thin and finely formed; 
 her eyes large, black, and lustrous ; her hair 
 of a dark-brown, not black ; her features pro- 
 minent ; and her hands and feet small and 
 dehcate. She grew fat, and lost her delicate 
 fragile beauty long before she went to 
 England. But I am speaking of long, long 
 ago. 
 
 When we were first brought into the 
 
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 5 
 
 queen's presence, my cousin and I, the queen 
 spoke kindly to us, and sent for sweetmeats. 
 But I could not eat, I was too busy gazing 
 around ; all was new and beautiful to me ; I 
 thought, surely this is Peristan (the country 
 of the Peris), and these are surely Peris, not 
 mortals. But I was told to eat, and I did 
 so, and found the sweetmeats so dehcious, 
 that I soon forgot everything else. We were 
 asked whether we were Sheeahs or Soonnies, 
 and the queen was sorry to hear that we 
 were Soonnies. To me, ignorant as 1 was, 
 the difference was a sinall matter ; but my 
 cousin was better instructed, and told me 
 afterwards I must always continue to be a 
 Soonny in heart, whatever they taught me. 
 I was well fed, and my duties were hght, so 
 that I did not dishke living in the palace ; 
 but it was not so with my cousin — she was 
 refractory, and was often punished. 
 
 A year passed away. I cannot remember 
 much of that far-off time. Good hving and 
 hght work made me fat and well-looking. 
 My father and his brothers had got money 
 enough to pay their debts, and came to 
 
6 PKIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTEEN QUEEN. 
 
 Lucknow to pay the money, and to reclaim 
 my cousin and myself. My cousin was quite 
 willing to go, but I was not so willing. When 
 I was taken to see my father, who was wait- 
 ing at the palace, I told him I did not want 
 to go home. He was sorrowful, and la- 
 mented. I could not bear to see him so sad, 
 and I said. Well, if I go home you must give 
 me khoormas, pillaus, and curries, such as I 
 get here to eat; not khodo,and dhall,as I got 
 at home before. When the queen heard that 
 I was not willing to go home she sent for 
 me again and spoke kindly to me : her heart 
 was good. She sent word to my father that 
 I should be brought up at the palace and 
 taught to prepare her hookah, and that he 
 might come occasionally to see me. But my 
 father was not content, and one day when 
 the king, Umjid Aly Shah, was going through 
 the streets of Lucknow in his janpan or 
 chair, my father threw himself on the ground 
 before him, and begged for justice and 
 mercy. The king asked what was the mat- 
 ter, and my father said he would die if his 
 daughter were not restored to him, for she 
 
PEESONAL KEMmiSCEXCES. 7 
 
 was his only child. The king promised to 
 exert himself in the matter, and spoke to the 
 queen. At first the queen refused, but after- 
 wards consented, on condition that if, after 
 some time, I still wished to return, I was 
 to be allowed to do so. So I was taken 
 home by my father and lived at home for 
 several months — I cannot tell exactly how 
 many months — but it was less than a year ; 
 some six or eight months perhaps. 
 
 I was not so happy at home as I had been 
 in the palace. My father was seldom with 
 me, and my cousin was not kind, and the 
 neighbours knew that I had killed my 
 mother at my birth, miserable that I am, and 
 so I longed to return. At length one day two 
 Chuprassies came from Lucknow, and said 
 the queen wanted to see me, and I was 
 brought back to the court. She asked me 
 if I wished to remain at home, or would 
 prefer being her slave. I spoke as a child ; I 
 preferred the palace to our poor cottage, and 
 I was not allowed to return to my father ; 
 nor did he come to reclaim me, wretched that 
 I am ; he loved me no longer. 
 
8 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 Another year passed away, and the queen 
 was kind, and a Moollah was appointed to 
 teach us the Koran. We learned something 
 of it, but we often bribed the Moollah to let 
 us play in the courtyard where the fountains 
 were, instead of being taught. There were 
 six or eight of us, all about the same age — 
 nine or ten years of age — some good some 
 bad, some pretty some ugly, as the way of 
 the world and of mankind is. We bribed 
 the Moollah with money, or ornaments, or 
 sweetmeats, or whatever we had. He was 
 an old white-bearded man, we were slaves ; 
 what did he care whether we learned or 
 not ? But all we learned was Sheeah doc- 
 trine and Sheeah customs, and to this day I 
 know no other. I was always a castaway. 
 At length it was told the queen that we 
 were not learning but playing, and she sent 
 for us one day to hear what we could read 
 and repeat, and we knew little or nothing. 
 So the queen was angry, and sent to the 
 Moollah to say her. slaves were not learning, 
 and next day the Moollah beat us all with a 
 cane, and in the evenmg we went to the 
 
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 9 
 
 queen and begged mercy and justice, and 
 showed her the marks of the cane, and she 
 said, ' Wah ! wah ! what trouble it is — it is 
 not their fate to learn — let the MooUah be 
 dismissed.' She was a kind queen and a 
 good always. 
 
 It was shortly after the dismissal of the 
 Moollah that news was brought of my father 
 being on his death-bed, and the queen 
 ordered me to be taken to see him. I sup- 
 pose I was about ten years of age, but how 
 can I tell exactly ? Is it that all my life is 
 written down in a book, that I should be 
 able to tell exactly how old I was when 
 each thing happened ? 
 
 I found my father lying on his bed with 
 closed eyes. I thought he was dead at first. 
 But after a httle, he opened his eyes and 
 saw me and knew me. Many were there ; 
 my cousin and others attending on him. He 
 feebly lifted his arms to embrace me. I laid 
 my head beside his head, and wept. Miser- 
 able that I was and am, I knew then that I 
 had no mother, and my father was going, 
 and I was to be a slave — an outcast from 
 
10 PRIVATE LIFE OP AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 my family and my religion — alone in the 
 world, and unhappy always. But who shall 
 avoid their fate ? God gives to one happi- 
 ness and to another misery, and who shall 
 question it? I thought my father was 
 trying to speak to me : perhaps he was, but 
 he was weak, and his head turned from 
 mine on the pillow, and they said ' He will 
 sleep ; ' so I arose, and took off my mushn 
 head-dress, and covered his face with it, and 
 sat near the door watching. Three or 
 four hours passed away. My cousin and the 
 others had gone ; I was alone with my sleep- 
 ing father, and I was very wretched, but my 
 heart was too full for tears'; I could not cry. 
 I was afraid and sad. At length they came 
 enquiring one by one. I said ' He sleeps,' 
 but they Hfted the covering from his face, 
 and said ' He is dead.' 
 
 I now knew what it was to be alone 
 indeed. Born wretched, I have lived 
 wretched. Such has been my fate. I was 
 too stupefied for tears, and my former com- 
 panions and playmates crowded round me, 
 and watched me, and said, ' She does not cry; 
 
PEESOT^AL EEMINISCEIS-CES. 11 
 
 do not the Sheeahs weep for dead fathers?' 
 I was treated as an outcast ; I deserved to 
 be so treated. I was not fit to eat with my 
 relatives, all good Soonnies ; I was not al- 
 lowed to sit on the same mat vdth them. I 
 could not use the same vessels for cooking. 
 I was a Sheeah, and I was glad to get back 
 again to court, where all were Sheeahs, and 
 where the queen was kind. I learned to 
 rub the queen's feet, and to prepare her 
 hookah, and I was as happy as so miserable 
 and forlorn a creature as I can ever expect 
 to be. 
 
 But I was married ? yes, of course I was 
 married. But God denied me children. 
 What right had I to expect children, who 
 had killed my mother at my birth? My 
 marriage was thus. When I was fit to be 
 married, the queen told me it was time, and 
 I was nothing loath. The news was told 
 that one of the queen's slave-girls was to be 
 married, and many men came forward to 
 offer. But the queen would have no Soon- 
 nies. At length a Sheeah, the son of a 
 Sheeah, offered — Gholam Hussain by name. 
 
12 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 He was told to come into the courtyard one 
 day at noon, and I saw him there. He did 
 not see me. I was with other girls, and one 
 of them, whom I had offended a few days 
 before, caught hold of my arm, and said to 
 another girl, ' That is to be Elihu Jan's 
 husband. Behold, she carries her head high 
 and is proud, and God has sent her a hus- 
 band as black as an Abyssinian.' I had no 
 choice in the matter; all was arranged for 
 me. Gholam Hussain got a shop for seUing 
 tobacco and such-Hke, near the palace gates, 
 and I was married to him. I did not like 
 him at first, and spent as much time as I 
 could away from him, in attendance on the 
 queen. But he was kind to me, and I hked 
 him better at last ; and although he is black, 
 he is not a bad man. But I was fated to 
 misery. 
 
 After the queen's husband, Umjid Aly Shah, 
 had died, and his son Wajid Aly Shah had 
 reigned many years, then the Enghsh came 
 and took the kingdom, and the queen, my 
 mistress, mother of the king, said, ' I will go 
 to England. The Queen of England is also 
 
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 13 
 
 a mother. I will ask her to give me back 
 my kingdom.' Alas! what wailing, what 
 sorrow, what beating of breasts, then took 
 place amongst us ! ' How shall you cross 
 the great black seas ? ' said we, ' you, who 
 fear even the river ? ' But it was fate, and 
 she said she would go, and she went. I 
 went with her to Calcutta, and my husband 
 was with us. The king offered to support 
 us in Calcutta, for the queen, his mother, 
 charged him to be kind to all her attendants. 
 But I would not live in his palace ; I would 
 prefer begging my bread abroad in the 
 world. I returned to Lucknow with my 
 husband. We hved on my jewels and orna- 
 ments for some time. My husband's shop 
 was cleared away. All the bazaar was 
 cleared away. The English like grass better 
 than bazaars. God has given them the king- 
 dom. God's will be done. But when the 
 gold and silver ornaments, and my few 
 jewels, were all eaten up, then I became a 
 servant. The English ladies are kind and 
 good, and tbey believe in God, and I love 
 my mistress, that is, ever since the queen 
 
14 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN" QUEEN. 
 
 died in Europe. And my husband ? oh. ! 
 he is as black as ever, a good kind man, and 
 lie sits at home and eats opium, and smokes 
 the hookah. My wages are enough for both 
 of us. 
 
15 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 THE queen's daily LIFE. 
 
 During the life of her husband, Umjid Aly 
 Shah, the queen was very happy. She had 
 been his only wife for many years, and the 
 first serious quarrel between them was when 
 he took a second wife. At first the queen 
 knew nothing of it, but, when she came to 
 hear of it, she refused to see the king for 
 three days, and abstained from eating, and 
 was silent, until the vizier and officers of 
 state represented to her that serious injury 
 would result to the kingdom if she persevered 
 in so doing. Still, she was always the chief 
 queen. She was the mother of the heir- 
 apparent, the present ex-King of Oudh, 
 Wajid Aly Shah, and after Umjid Aly Shah's 
 death, the honours paid to her as queen- 
 dowager, and as mother of the king, were 
 
16 PEIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 similar to those she received during her 
 husband's Hfetime. 
 
 The queen and Umjid Aly Shah were fond 
 of each other, and she led a virtuous, reh- 
 gious life always, whatever might be going 
 on in the palace or city, or however her 
 husband or son might act. But men are 
 always great evil-doers, and when women 
 have power, and are able to hve as they 
 choose, all is moral and regular. It is the 
 power and influence of men that cause the 
 evil. One wife, four wives, fifty wives will 
 not suffice a king, whilst a queen is content 
 with one husband, if he will but be faithful. 
 But when was man ever faithful? 
 
 4 was only a child when Umjid Aly Shah 
 was king, and I did not see so much of the 
 queen then, as I did afterwards during the 
 reign of her son, Wajid Aly. Can I remem- 
 ber in those far-ofi* days what she said or 
 what she did? I was a child, and it is long 
 long ago ; but this I know, that she was 
 always kind and good. 
 
 She was fond of* the Chutter Munzil and 
 the Chowlukhy Palaces in Lucknow, and of 
 Dwarka Dhass' garden-house in the country. 
 
THE QUEEN'S DAILY LIFE. 17 
 
 These were her three favourite residences. 
 During the cold weather she usually resided 
 in the Chutter Munzil, and it was a common 
 thing for her to sit at one of the windows, look- 
 ing out through the Venetians at the river and 
 the road, watching whatever was passing there ; 
 and often did she send for some poor crying 
 woman, and send her away with comfort in her 
 heart and money in her hand. The Chowlukhy 
 she preferred in the hot season, and the garden- 
 house in the rains. I remember once I was 
 waiting on her during the rains, when she 
 had come in for a few days to the Chutter 
 Munzil, and she was looking out on the 
 swollen river whilst I was attending to her 
 hookah. She called out to me, ' Elihu Jan, 
 there is an old woman being carried down 
 the river! Eun, call the attendants — get 
 assistance — ^have her saved ! ' I ran and 
 called out for help. The poor old woman's 
 cottage had been swept away by the flood, and 
 she was holding on to part of the thatched roof 
 as it was being carried along. She was soon 
 released by the help of the attendants de- 
 spatched for the purpose, and having been 
 
18 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 dried and clothed, she was brought into the 
 queen's apartment. After learning her his- 
 tory, and that the poor old woman was alone 
 in the world, all her relatives dead, none to 
 help or comfort or support her, the queen 
 settled a pension of three rupees a month on 
 her. She used to go about Lucknow after- 
 wards, always called the ' floating old woman ' 
 by the crowd, and I saw her so going about 
 shortly before the English took the country. 
 What became of her then, how can I tell ? 
 When the world was turned upside down, 
 and kings and queens lost their thrones, what 
 matter what became of one poor old woman? 
 To the garden-house there was a large 
 garden attached, with high walls all round ; 
 and during the rainy season, when it was 
 pleasantly cool between the showers, the 
 queen, with her attendant women, a hun- 
 dred of them, or two hundred of them, 
 would roam round the walks, enjoying her- 
 self hke a child. With a good heart and a 
 propitious fate one may be very happy any- 
 where, but particularly in a garden, for the 
 flowers and trees remind one of Paradise. 
 
THE queen's daily LIFE. 19 
 
 The queen was very religious. After 
 rising about ten or eleven o'clock in the morn- 
 ing, she usually had her hands and face 
 washed by her attendants, tasted a little un- 
 leavened cake with a preparation of milk, and 
 then went to her dressing-room, where the 
 Moollah always attended to read the Koran 
 — the Moollah being separated from her by a 
 screen. After her husband's death she used 
 to read the Koran herself far into the night, 
 for she was a great scholar, and her words 
 were wise. A cooling drink was brought to 
 her in hot weather before the mid-day meal, 
 and this drink was of conserves and diluted 
 pearls. All kings and queens, I have heard, 
 drink diluted pearls, and it is said, moreover, 
 that they are a very wholesome thing, and of 
 great virtue ; but of course none but kings 
 and queens could afford to drink them. I 
 had nothing to do with the queen's drinks 
 or meats, only her hookah, and I rubbed 
 her feet too; but I have no doubt she 
 drank the pearls — everybody said she did. 
 
 After dressing and sitting in state, the mid- 
 day meal or breakfast was introduced. The 
 
 c 2 
 
20 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 queen's breakfast was cooked by women in 
 her own kitchens, the king's by men in other 
 kitchens. But often, with band playing, the 
 king came to eat with the queen, and his 
 breakfast was brought over on silver trays. 
 A cannon was fired at noon, and that was 
 the signal for breakfast. The second meal, 
 or dinner, was at or after sunset, and con- 
 sisted of the same viands, pillaus of three 
 kinds, khoormas, kabobs, strong broths of 
 meat or sheep^s head, with all kinds of 
 vegetables, and sweetmeats. Can I re- 
 member all she ate, when twenty to thirty 
 dishes were introduced at each meal? She 
 always ate with a spoon, not with her hands 
 as we do. The hookah was introduced after 
 each meal, and, if people came for an audience 
 after that, it was well for them if the king's 
 or the queen's hookah was properly pre- 
 pared. The best of people are cross if their 
 food or their hookah is bad, but particularly 
 if the hookah is not properly prepared. 
 
 On retiring to rest the queen always had 
 a story-teller, to narrate something to her. 
 When the king was alive, the story-teller used 
 to sit behind a screen, not far from the bed, 
 
THE queen's daily LIFE. 21 
 
 but when she became a widow, the story-teller 
 sat at the bed's head, and varied her story- 
 according to the queen's taste. If the object 
 was to induce sleep, a drowsy, monotonous, 
 rigmarole story, drawlingly told, soon pro- 
 duced the desired effect. If the object was to 
 amuse, to excite, to enliven, to soothe sorrow, 
 the story-teller varied her tale accordingly. 
 Far into the night the tale was told, and a 
 handsome present was the reward of a really 
 good story. There were four favourite story- 
 tellers. The attendants were changed as the 
 story-teller was introduced, and as she left 
 they were changed again. The queen was 
 fond of stories, and often told some to us, but 
 chiefly religious stories. The tales told by 
 the story-tellers were of all kinds: about 
 kings and queens, about love — about beggars 
 becoming princes, or princes beggars — about 
 the Peris and the Court of Indra. There are 
 plenty of story-tellers left in Lucknow, if you 
 want to know what kind of tales they told. 
 
 When the queen bathed, then was there 
 much preparation, and a long and tiresome 
 day's work for her servants. I was not one 
 of the bath attendants, but I know all about 
 
22 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 it. Cisterns of cold water were filled in the 
 humaum, and pipes of warm water, all were 
 got ready betimes, and on the day for bathing 
 both the queen and her attendants prepared 
 for a hard day's work. Soap was not used in 
 the queen's bath, but hasun (ground pease) 
 instead. Two or three of the oldest attend- 
 ants, who had been with the queen from her 
 maidenhood, attended, undressed, and bathed 
 her. Basun was plentifully rubbed over each 
 limb, and washed off with warm water, rubbed 
 on and washed ofi*, over and over again, per- 
 haps twenty times — a tedious process. The 
 queen and her attendants were all equally tired 
 before the bath was over, and by that time the 
 usual meal was ready. There were eunuchs, 
 of course, in the palace — what palace is with- 
 out them ? — but the queen did not like them, 
 and they only appeared on occasions of public 
 ceremony, processions, and such-like. They 
 had nothing to do with the bath. There 
 were women-soldiers also, on guard in uniform 
 and with musket, bayonet, &:c.,at the entrances 
 of the female apartments of the palace, and 
 in the corridors. The queen did not like 
 them, and interfered little with them. The 
 
THE queen's daily LIFE. 23 
 
 old customs were maintained, but with as 
 little parade as possible. In fact, so averse 
 was the queen to parade and fuss, that she 
 seldom went abroad, except when it was abso- 
 lutely necessary. The collection of elephants, 
 camels, and horses, cavalry and foot-soldiers, 
 silver-stick bearers, and guards of all kinds, 
 was a bore to her. She hked elegant dresses 
 and neat jewellery, but she was wearied with 
 state apparel, and often, on returning from 
 expeditions of ceremony, would throw herself 
 down tired on the couch, exclaiming, ' Let 
 them all go away : bismillah ! but I am glad 
 it is all over, it is very tiresome.' After her 
 husband's death she never wore the nose-ring 
 again, but retained all her other jewels and 
 state apparel. A band preceded her, and 
 guards and troops attended when she was 
 queen-dowager, just as when she was queen- 
 regnant ; for was she not the king's mother ? 
 For exercise and amusement the grounds, 
 enclosed by high walls, near the palaces and 
 at the country-seats of the king, were suffi- 
 cient. There were artificial fountains, and 
 sheets of water, and flowers and fruit-trees, 
 and well-kept walks ; ample space for walk^ 
 
24 PEIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 ing or riding or driving, as the humour 
 might be. The queen did not ride on horse- 
 back ; modest women in our country never 
 do. The manners of Europeans are different ; 
 in all things God has made the two people 
 different . The queen made long journeys in 
 a silver howdah on an elephant, or in her 
 state palanquin, or tonjon, carried by slaves in 
 red liveries. 
 
 In the house a room was always set apart 
 for dining, and used for no other purpose. 
 There were no large tables, and high chairs 
 in it, as in the Sahibs' dining-rooms, but small 
 tables were brought in with the entertain- 
 ment, on which the silver dishes were placed ; 
 and the queen sat on her usual cushions, with 
 a large richly-embroidered pillow at her 
 back, as at the durbar. Her arms and face 
 were washed after each meal, for she was 
 scrupulously clean. Even the small tables or 
 stools for the reception of the dishes were 
 often of pure silver, and the floor was cover- 
 ed with the richest carpets. Chandeliers 
 hung from the ceiling, and large mirrors with 
 gilt frames covered the walls. The royal 
 dustar khwan, or table cloth, was composed 
 
THE QUEEN'S DAILY LIFE. 25 
 
 of two large pieces of handsome broad cloth, 
 designed in patterns of flowers, and orna- 
 mental devices, covering a piece of leather of 
 equal size, sewn up all round. The table- 
 cloth was spread in the centre of the apart- 
 ment at dinner-time, and all the dinner 
 apparatus was placed on it. Much ice was 
 used, both for cooling sherbets, and the 
 hookah-water. The queen drank no wine 
 or strong drinks. As to the king, how can I 
 tell what he drank' in his own apartments ? 
 but when with the queen he drank nothing 
 but sherbets, and such drinks as a Mussul- 
 man is allowed to drink. 
 
 There were several drawing-rooms in each 
 palace. The centre was usually occupied by 
 a round table, of rare woods, or marble, or 
 crystal, or silver-gilt, and on this were placed 
 ornaments of all kinds, china, gold, silver, 
 lacquered ware, vases, and clocks. The orna- 
 ments came from China, from Delhi, and from 
 Europe.* Couches, of the European fashion, 
 covered with rich bright damask or silk, were 
 also to be found in the drawing-rooms ; and, 
 
 * Many of them irom Birmingham. 
 
26 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 in each such room, one bed was always ready- 
 made for reclining upon in the day-time, 
 covered with some rich counterpane. 
 
 The dressing-rooms had the usual mirrors 
 and chandeliers, with boxes all round the 
 room for clothes and jewellery — not presses, 
 or almirahs, or chests of drawers, as European 
 ladies have. The furniture of the bed and 
 bath-room was all of pure silver. There were 
 also two golden bedsteads in the palace, 
 which the ex-king took with him to Calcutta.* 
 
 The queen's treasury was guarded by sol- 
 diers, and there was an apartment adjoining 
 it, called the ty khan ah, not an underground 
 apartment, for retiring to in very warm wea- 
 ther, as the word usually means, but a store- 
 house for spare clothes, jewels, and such-like. 
 In this tykhanah there was one large box full 
 of a mixture of rupees and gold mohurs, 
 called khichry, from the dish of that name. 
 It had been filled and placed there by Umjid 
 
 * These golden bedsteads were made in the time of 
 Saadut Aly Khan, and it is said that one of them has 
 been melted down recently in Calcutta, by order of the 
 ex-king. 
 
THE queen's daily LIFE. 27 
 
 Aly's father, and was only to be used in time 
 of extraordinary need. All this was spent in 
 the reign of her son, the ex-king, Wajid Aly 
 Shah. Once when the queen was away at 
 the garden-house, for a fortnight or so, some 
 of the female slaves left behind broke into 
 this room, and succeeded in opening one of 
 the boxes of jewels. A girl of about sixteen 
 years of age, whom the queen had promised in 
 marriage to an attendant of the king, was the 
 ringleader in this theft. The queen had been 
 very kind to her, and it was a case of signal 
 ingratitude. Only one box had been opened^ 
 and that so unskilfully, that great injury had 
 been done to the jewels within. The pro- 
 perty had been taken from it during the 
 night, and next morning traces of the bur- 
 glary and of the theft were apparent. The 
 queen was informed of it, and returned to 
 Lucknow. Suspicion fell upon the slave- 
 girl in question, and she was scourged with 
 canes upon the back, until she confessed. 
 She pointed out in what places in Lucknow 
 the property would be found, and a good 
 deal of it was recovered, but much injured in 
 value. 
 
28 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 The queen usually gave audience between 
 the morning and evening meals. Distressed 
 women from the country of all classes would 
 come to her, with petitions, with complaints, 
 with presents. She was ready to hear them 
 all, to do the best she could for all. It was a 
 source of great gain to us her servants, for 
 none got an audience without paying hand- 
 somely for it. Whoever came was kept 
 waiting, and put off from day to day, with 
 various excuses, until we thought we could 
 get nothing more out of them, and then, and 
 not till then, were they admitted — just as the 
 native clerks and others do in the Sahibs' 
 Kucherry, where the Sahibs administer jus- 
 tice. Would the poor people not complain ? 
 you ask. Of course not. Do they complain 
 at Kucherry ? Is it not the custom ? WiU 
 the word of one stranger be beheved before 
 that of twenty servants ? Well, perhaps it 
 was wrong. But it is the custom of this 
 country. God has made Europeans different. 
 You cannot change the nature of man. 
 
29 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 THE SKELETON IN THE CLOSET. 
 
 Everybody has some enemies, and, good and 
 religious as our queen was, she too had her 
 enemies. These were chiefly the low-bom 
 women whom her son married when he be- 
 came king. It was customary, when the son , 
 wished to contract a new marriage, to send 
 the bride to the queen-mother for her ap- 
 proval first. My mistress objected to some, 
 but he took them into his harem all the 
 same ; and when she found her remonstrances 
 and her opposition useless, she ceased to 
 object to any of them, approving of all he 
 sent. He had all kinds of wives. Some of 
 them princesses to whom he had been mar- 
 ried in his father's lifetime, but when he 
 became king he had black women, Abyssi- 
 nians, high caste and low, young and old^ 
 
30 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 Mussulman and Hindu, all kinds of women 
 for wives ; and my mistress never recognised 
 and never acknowledged any of them as 
 queens, except the high-born princesses to 
 whom he had been first married. 
 
 The chief wife of Wajid Aly, and the 
 mother of the heir-apparent, had not cere- 
 monial honours, and was not attended by a 
 state equal to that of my mistress, and this 
 was the cause of much ill-feehng. Several 
 attempts were made on my mistress's hfe, 
 and they were all traced to the harem of the 
 king, her son. 
 
 Umjid Aly Shah had died of an ulcer, or 
 some such sore on his shoulder, and I have 
 heard the queen, my mistress, say that the 
 sore must have been poisoned by some one, 
 most probably by one of the physicians, 
 bribed by some one who benefited most by 
 his death. Had Umjid Aly Shah lived, I 
 have no doubt the crime would have been 
 found out, and the criminal discovered ; but 
 when he died, who was going to tell ? who 
 would protect the physician who asserted 
 poison had been used? what witnesses would 
 
THE SKELETON IN THE CLOSET. 31 
 
 come forward against the instigator of the 
 crime, when that man the instigator was 
 all-powerful? Umjid Aly Shah had warned 
 the queen not to allow Wajid Aly to ascend 
 the throne in case he, Umjid Aly, died ; but 
 what could she do ? She was but a woman. 
 Wajid Aly was the eldest son, and the Eng- 
 lish Eesident, who knew nothing of palace 
 wives perhaps, declared that the eldest son 
 must succeed. And so Wajid Aly became 
 king, and the fate of Oudh was bad, for the 
 wickedness of Lucknow was great. How 
 do I know that ? Does not every one know 
 that Lucknow was as the cities that God 
 burnt up once for wickedness? Is it not 
 written in the Koran ? 
 
 I do not say that Wajid Aly poisoned his 
 father, or that Khash Mehal, his chief wife, 
 tried to murder the queen, my mistress ; 
 but I do say that, in the palace, such things 
 were spoken of, and many of the slaves 
 believed such stories to be truths. ' Would 
 a son murder his father ? would a daughter- 
 in-law attempt the life of her mother-in-law? ' 
 These were the questions I would ask, and 
 
32 PRIVATE LIFE OF AJf EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 they would reply, ' A kingdom is at stake^- 
 the prize is great — God is good, but Luck- 
 now is very wicked.' 
 
 I know that, if she could, my mistress 
 would have placed her second son, whom 
 we called the General Sahib, because he was 
 commander-in-chief, on the throne. But 
 the English would have the eldest son, Wajid 
 Aly ; and so Wajid Aly was crowned, and 
 now Oudh is no longer a kingdom. But 
 what have I to do with making of kings and 
 queens, and raising and upsetting kingdoms ? 
 I am but a slave, or rather I was but a slave, 
 and I can only tell what I saw and heard. 
 
 During the Mohurrim all the chief ser- 
 vants got mingled together in the ceremonial 
 visits of the king's family. Khash Mehal's 
 servants, and Wajid Aly's, and we, all met 
 in the various palaces often, during the Mo- 
 hurrim, for ceremonial visits were then fre- 
 quent and usual. It was, then, during the 
 Mohurrim that I was one day preparing the 
 queen's hookah, as usual, in the Chutter 
 Munzil Palace. I cannot tell what year it 
 was; what had I to do with years and dates? 
 
THE SKELETON IN THE CLOSET. 33 
 
 but it was five or six years before the Eng- 
 lish took the kingdom. It was my custom 
 before putting on the mouthpiece, and taking 
 the hookah to the queen, to put my own mouth 
 to the end of the snake,* and draw it for 
 a few minutes, so as to ignite the tobacco 
 thoroughly. I was doing so on this occasion, 
 when I felt some fine tasteless powder drawn 
 up into my mouth, for which I could not 
 account. I had cleaned the snake tho- 
 roughly in the morning, and at first I 
 thought ashes from the chillum, or bowl, 
 had got through ; but that was impossible, as 
 the smoke was drawn through the water. I 
 fortunately did not swallow the powder, but 
 spat it out. I suspected poison at once, and 
 went to the queen to tell her so. She only 
 laughed at me, and said to her attendant, 
 'Go, and see what strange mare's nest the 
 unfledged wit of EHhu Jan has discovered.' 
 I showed the attendant some of the white 
 impalpable dust, and she had the hookah 
 snake carefully cut open. The white powder 
 
 * The long elastic tube of the hookah is called the 
 * snake.' 
 
 D 
 
34 PEIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTEEN QUEEN". 
 
 was discovered scattered over the tube in- 
 side. How do I know how they got it 
 there ? Those who do the devil's work will 
 get assistance from the devil, I suppose. 
 But there it was, plain and unmistakable. 
 Very fine, and very thinly scattered; all 
 that was loose I had drawn up. A hakeem, 
 or physician, was called by the queen to 
 examine the powder, and he said it was 
 poison, and advised that I should be pun- 
 ished — may evil hght on the grey beard of 
 him! — but the queen was good and just, 
 and said, ' No, no ! this is not Elihu Jan's 
 doing ; my enemy hath done this.' Can I 
 tell who she meant was her enemy ? Yes, I 
 could guess. That enemy is still alive in 
 Calcutta — the chief wife of the ex-king — 
 Khash Mehal. But the queen may have 
 been mistaken, of course. There was no 
 proof. The English want proofs of every- 
 thing, as if people called witnesses to watch 
 them attempt to poison a queen. Mashallah! 
 but the ways of the English are wonderful, 
 and past all finding out. 
 
 Nor was that the only attempt of the 
 
THE SKELETON IN THE CLOSET. 35 
 
 enemy. Tlie bed, as I already mentioned, 
 was always covered with a rich counterpane, 
 and, when prepared for the night, was not 
 turned down from the pillow, as we prepare 
 the beds for the Sahibs. Often, particularly 
 during the hot weather, the queen lay down 
 on the counterpane, not under it, the attend- 
 ants fanning her and brushing away the flies. 
 It was again during the Mohurrim. The 
 queen, wearied with the prayers and ceremo- 
 nies of the morning, and with her rigid fast, 
 came into her bedroom to lie down. She 
 had a high pillow, so as to use the hookah 
 without inconvenience, as she rechned. I was 
 preparing the hookah, and was just in the 
 act of carrying it into the room, when a great 
 commotion arose in the bedroom. A snake, 
 in a charmed or comatose state, was found 
 coiled up under the counterpane, near the 
 foot of the bed. A search was made, and 
 outside was found the earthen jar in which 
 the snake had been brought. The queen had 
 the snake restored to the earthen jar, and 
 then held a consultation as to what was best 
 to be done. It could not have come there by 
 
 s 2 
 
36 PEIYATE LIFE OF AK EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 accident. That was quite out of the question. 
 The snake was a deadly cobra-di-capello, 
 about three feet long. 
 
 Early next morning, by beat of drum, all 
 the snake-charmers of Lucknow were ordered 
 to attend at the queen's palace, and guards 
 were sent round to collect them. As the 
 snake that had been found in the queen's bed 
 was in a charmed state, it was evident some 
 of these men had been employed to charm it, 
 and could give evidence on the subject. It 
 was explained to them that no harm would 
 happen from confession, as whoever was em- 
 ployed was doubtless kept in ignorance of the 
 cause. But they all denied — liars they are 
 and were. Those that discover crime and 
 hidden things by ordeals and otherwise, 
 were then called in, and they pointed out 
 one of the snake-charmers, who looked 
 frightened and confused, as the party who 
 had charmed the snake. He still denied. 
 But the queen was determined to make him 
 confess. His back was bared. Ice was 
 first rubbed over it, and then the rattan was 
 applied. He got about twenty lashes, when 
 
THE SKELETON IN THE CLOSET. 37 
 
 he offered to confess everything. The queen 
 was merciful, and his hands were removed 
 from the spht bamboo in which they had been 
 placed, according to custom, when whipping 
 was administered. He was released, and con- 
 fessed that he had charmed the snake. The 
 evening before, he said, the head darogah or 
 gate-keeper of one of the king's wives had 
 come to him, asking him to charm this snake, 
 so that it would lie perfectly still, wherever it 
 was placed, for eighteen or twenty hours, and 
 he had done so, and given the darogah back 
 the snake, and knew nothing more of the 
 matter. The darogah was called, and of 
 course denied it all — what else could be ex- 
 pected ? But on collecting the servants who 
 had had access to the bedroom that morning, 
 the finders-out of crime by ordeal were again 
 called, and pointed out the maidservant who 
 had been bribed by the darogah to put the 
 snake into the queen's bed. She too denied. 
 Will the father of lies let his children speak 
 the truth ? They were both flogged severely 
 — the darogah and the maidservant — and 
 thrown separately into prison, into under- 
 
38 PRIVATE LIFE OP A^ EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 ground dungeons of one of the old palaces. 
 The queen was merciful, and would not have 
 them put to death, although the king, her son, 
 advised her to have them both impaled. The 
 snake-charmer was allowed to go free, but 
 of course he will carry the marks of the 
 scourging on his back all his life. The cane 
 was not laid on lightly in the palace, you may 
 be sure. 
 
 I , have no doubt of the guilt of the 
 darogah and the maidservant — none what- 
 ever. When the ordeal is used to discover 
 crime, it is God who decides, not man. 
 The girl was a slave like myself, but un- 
 married — not a bad-looking girl, very merry 
 and lively, but too fond of ornaments. She 
 sold herself for them, I dare say. What if 
 the diviners of crime had pointed me out? 
 you ask. If they had, I should have been 
 scourged and imprisoned in the underground 
 dungeon, full of rats and vermin. Yes, of 
 course I should ; but I tell you it was im- 
 possible. God is good. You want witnesses 
 and proofs again. Wah! wah! witnesses 
 and proofs may do for England, but we trust 
 
THE SKELETON IN" THE CLOSET. 39 
 
 in God. You could get fifty witnesses in 
 Lucknow at two annas (threepence) a day 
 to swear anything, in any way.* But why 
 should Khash Mehal wish for the queen- 
 mother's death ? you ask. Why do people 
 like to be great and powerful ? guards, at- 
 tendants, a band, silver-sticks in waiting, 
 priority in all processions ? — these were the 
 right of my mistress ; and, if she was re- 
 moved, Khash Mehal would have been the 
 first woman in Oudh. I know of no other 
 reason why she should wish the queen-mother 
 dead. 
 
 Even from her own daughter the queen 
 got but little sympathy. Her son, the 
 general, who accompanied her to England, 
 was her greatest friend, and him she could 
 trust in all things. The general had no easy 
 part to play in Lucknow. He had a very 
 
 * It is quite evident that there is nothing in either 
 of the above instances of attempted murder, if indeed 
 they were such, to prove the complicity of any of the 
 king's household, exen as Elihu Jan relates the story. 
 Her strong impressions on the subject were doubtless 
 those of the household to which she was attached. 
 
40 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 liandsome wife, and he was afraid if liis 
 brother the king saw her, he would take her 
 to himself. The king wanted to see her, but 
 the general never allowed her to come to 
 court, and changed her residence frequently, 
 and his mother, my mistress, helped him. 
 She loved the general much better than she 
 loved Wajid Aly, and the general was a 
 good man and just to woman. 
 
 The marriage of the queen's daughter with 
 ISTawab Sath Chood Dowlah had not been a 
 happy one ; and the queen sympathised with 
 her, and often remonstrated with the nawab. 
 Yet when the queen called on her daughter, 
 at the time of the Mohurrim, and told her of 
 this attempt on her hfe, the answer she got 
 was : ' Your life will do you little good at 
 your age. Are you not old ? are not your 
 teeth gone ? can you live long ? ' Perhaps 
 it was in the bitterness of her own heart 
 that the shahzadee (princess) so spoke, but 
 she was wrong so to speak. The queen was 
 angry, and ordered her chair forthwith, 
 without giving any reply, and went away, 
 and several months passed before there was 
 
THE SKELETON IN THE CLOSET. 41 
 
 any reconciliation between them. She too, 
 the shahzadee, would have taken a higher 
 position if the queen, my mistress, died. 
 From all I could find out, after living more 
 than twenty years in a palace, there is less 
 natural affection there than in the mud 
 cabin where all are poor. But it is not 
 right for a slave to judge the king or the 
 royal family — the queen taught us that out 
 of the Koran ; and the hearts of princes 
 are past finding out. Are we not all in 
 hands of God ? 
 
42 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 MINOK TROUBLES. 
 
 The real sorrows of the queen began with 
 the death of her husband, Umjid Aly Shah, 
 but she had apparent sorrows enough even 
 when he was ahve. He had been a long 
 time heir apparent, and did not come 
 to the throne till he was advanced in middle 
 life, and only reigned five years. It was 
 very shortly after his reign began that I was 
 brought to the palace, and, child though I was, 
 I remember everyone used to say he was a 
 model of a husband, because he had never 
 taken any other wife. The queen's children, 
 three boys and one girl, were all born before 
 her husband came to the throne. 
 
 The only apparently cruel thing I can 
 remember the queen having ever done, was 
 the result of jealousy. When Umjid Aly 
 
MINOR TROUBLES. 43 
 
 had been nearly a year or so on the throne, 
 he began to distinguish one of the queen's 
 attendant girls by presents, and by sending 
 to her kind messages. As this girl was the 
 servant usually in charge of the youngest 
 prince, then an infant, the king had many 
 opportunities of speaking to her, and the 
 queen thought the presents he gave her 
 were prompted by his affection for the child. 
 The household, however, knew better, and 
 began to treat her with more respect, and to 
 call her by higher titles, when they saw that 
 the king was really attached to her. Whe- 
 ther the king went through any ceremony of 
 marriage with her, or not, I do not know. 
 Certain it is, however, that the queen came to 
 hear of the affection he displayed, and of the 
 consequent assumption by her servant of 
 titles of honour and a proud carriage, when 
 not actually in the queen's presence. 
 
 Now the queen was known to all to be 
 a resolute determined woman. She was 
 learned, could read and write Persian and 
 Arabic, was a princess of Delhi by birth and 
 a queen by marriage — was such a woman to 
 
44 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTEEN QUEEN. 
 
 allow a base-born slave to step between her 
 and lier lord, she being the mother of the 
 king's children ? When she once expressed 
 a desire for anything, she always got it, no 
 matter who opposed. If it was not granted 
 at once, she neither eat nor drank till either 
 the request was granted, or at least a solemn 
 promise was made to grant it. But she was 
 wise too, and never injured the kingdom by 
 her demands. Sole lord of the king's heart, 
 mother of his children, was she to allow a 
 rival to carry off his affections from her? 
 Certainly not. 
 
 The attendant in question, I forget her 
 name, was one afternoon sleeping soundly, 
 fatigued by exercise, and overcome by the sul- 
 triness of the day. The apartment in which 
 she slept was at the end of a gallery leading 
 from the queen's private rooms to those of 
 pubhc reception. The queen accidentally 
 passed by, and saw her there asleep. The 
 attendant was a handsome girl, full grown, 
 with a fine figure, and through some accident 
 had never been married. It was whispered 
 in the palace that she would one day be 
 
MINOR TEOUBLES. 45 
 
 mother of a royal child, whether truly or 
 falsely I do not know. 
 
 The queen passed on and said nothing 
 till she came to her own apartment. She 
 then called to her one of her most trusted 
 servants — an old woman who had been with 
 her from her maidenhood, who had come 
 with her from Delhi. How the thing was 
 managed afterwards I do not know, but 
 soon all the palace was in an uproar, roused 
 by the screams of the attendant who had 
 been sleeping a few minutes before so 
 soundly, dreaming perhaps of the affection 
 of a king. She had been sleeping, I heard, 
 with face and neck uncovered, the usual 
 muslin veil having been thrown aside in con- 
 sequence of the heat ; and some description 
 of firework, or explosive substance, had 
 been let off so close to her as to burn her 
 severely on the face and neck. The queen 
 was very sorry for the pain she suffered, and 
 was doing all she could to alleviate it, when 
 the king came in. A dark scowl was on his 
 face. The girl was removed by his orders, 
 in order that proper medical aid might be 
 
46 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 obtained. She was long ill. Her beauty- 
 was clean gone for ever, and she was soon 
 forgotten. I do not know what became of 
 her afterwards. 
 
 I was only a child when all this happened, 
 but I remember the screams and the bustle, 
 and the queen's sorrow. She cried over the 
 poor girl, her heart was good. It was never 
 proved, of course, that she had anything to do 
 with it, but I beheve she had, all the same. 
 There was an investigation, of course, and it 
 was all set down as the result of accident ; 
 but they say that the king was for a long 
 time terribly angry. His anger, however, 
 was Httle matter, for the queen ruled him 
 still. There was but one will between the 
 two, and that will was hers. 
 
 But was not all this very cruel on the 
 queen's part ? No, not cruel, but in reality 
 very merciful. Any other queen would have 
 had the slave put to death, and her body 
 thrown into the river. If I were a queen — 
 well it 's no use saying what I should do if 
 I were a queen, but no slave should come 
 between me and my husband. Of that you 
 
MINOE TROUBLES. 47 
 
 may be sure. Cruel ? No, my mistress the 
 queen was never cruel. She was pious and 
 devout and charitable, and read the Koran 
 daily. Had her husband and her son been 
 as good as she was, God would never have 
 taken the kingdom from the family. Was 
 not all the fault in this case her husband's ? 
 
 Yes, the king had his revenge nevertheless. 
 He took a flower-girl of Lucknow, and mar- 
 ried her by muta (an inferior or left-handed 
 marriage peculiar to the Sheeahs). She had 
 a palace given to her, and was made great 
 and wealthy, but the queen knew nothing 
 of it, as I heard, until cannon announced 
 the birth of a son. When she subsequently 
 reproached the king on the subject, his 
 answer was, that in the Koran many more 
 wives were allowed than he had ever taken 
 or intended to take. Before all the servants 
 she spoke loudly and bitterly in reply, saying, 
 ' True, it is allowed, and you have waited till 
 the best years of your hfe are gone, and now, 
 in your old age, you take a flower-girl to 
 wife — a flower-girl fresh from the bazaar. 
 Your servants, who have bought flowers from 
 
48 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 her, are daily in your court, and say in their 
 hearts, as they look on you, " Behold the 
 husband of the flower-girl, from whom we 
 bought flowers in the bazaar on such a 
 day I " ' The king rose and went away in a 
 rage ; and the queen's attendants said to her, 
 'He will not come agani.' 'He shall not 
 come,' was her answer, but it was only in 
 bravado she said it, for when she was in her 
 own room she cried bitterly. 
 
 The young wife, the flower-girl, was called 
 mulika, or princess, after the birth of her son, 
 but never in the queen's presence, nor was 
 that son ever spoken of before her as sahib- 
 alum, or shahzadha, or prince. Her servants 
 and attendants well knew she would not 
 allow it. 
 
 But, as I have said, Umjid Aly Shah only 
 reigned a few years, and when he first fell ill 
 he showed his affection for the queen my 
 mistress throughout, till his death. I do not 
 know what his sickness was. I only know he 
 was sick, and that the immediate cause of 
 death was an ulcer or sore on his shoulder, 
 which gave him great pain, and which the 
 
MINOR TROUBLES. 49 
 
 queen afterwards believed had been poisoned 
 by one of his physicians, bribed so to do, as I 
 have said before. 
 
 A few days before his death the mulika, 
 daughter of the fruiterer, sent her son, in 
 order that he might get his father's blessing. 
 She did not venture to come herself, for the 
 queen would never have given her permission 
 to enter her apartments, but she hoped there 
 would be mercy for her infant son, and she 
 was right. She knew the queen had a good 
 heart. 
 
 When the sahibalum came we knew not 
 how to announce him to the queen. To give 
 him his title would offend her ; to omit it 
 would probably offend the king, and the king 
 was dying. After some delay, at length one 
 of the king's eldest eunuchs approached him, 
 saying: 'May it please your majesty, lord 
 of the universe, protector of the poor, the 
 infant son of Mulika Ahud has been sent to 
 payhis respects to your majesty.' ' Let the 
 sahibalum be admitted,' was the king's order. 
 ' Sahibalum ! ' echoed the queen, ' Sahibalum ! 
 What king's daughter or what queen's daughter 
 
50 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 is his mother ? What was her dowry ? and 
 whence did it come? Bring in the boy.' 
 The infant was brought in. We slaves expect- 
 ed that she would have spat on him, or at the 
 least taken no notice of him. But we were 
 mistaken. Who shall understand the hearts of 
 princes ? She was a good and a kind mistress. 
 She spoke kindly to the infant, took him on 
 her knee, and said to him, 'What is your 
 mother doing ? ' ' She is crying, because my 
 father, the' king, is so sick,' was the child's 
 answer. Tears collected in the queen's eyes, 
 she patted the boy's cheek, and kissed him, 
 and the king, who was lying down, took her 
 hand in his, and said to her : ' Begum, his 
 mother is nothing. I give the boy to you. 
 Love him for my sake, when I am gone.' 
 The queen wept, forgave him freely, promised 
 to befriend the boy, but added, ' Why do you 
 talk so ? you will soon be well again.' So 
 little idea had she that he was so soon to 
 die! 
 
 After the death of Umjid Aly Shah, the 
 frequent and constant muta marriages of her 
 son Wajid Aly gave the queen much trouble 
 
MINOK TKOUBLES. 51 
 
 and annoyance. So far as I am aware, he 
 contracted only one nikha (full and complete 
 marriage), and that was with the daughter of 
 his vizier. I speak of the time subsequent to 
 his father's death. He had more than one 
 nikha wife before that, of whom Khash 
 Mehal was chief. 
 
 After contracting marriage with his daugh- 
 ter, Wajid Aly was very intimate with the 
 vizier, often allowing him a seat on his own 
 carpet at durbar, contrary to custom, and 
 contrary to the remonstrances of the queen 
 my mistress. This familiarity of the king 
 with her husband, caused the wife of the 
 vizier to assume an importance and dignity 
 of demeanour to which she was not entitled 
 either by position or birth. 
 
 I remember, on one occasion, the wife of 
 the vizier called on the queen my mistress 
 at an hour earlier than visitors were usually 
 admitted. It so happened that the queen 
 was up and dressed, but, as she was very 
 tenacious of her dignity, and would not allow 
 anyone to infringe upon it, she sent word 
 to the vizier's wife that, as the usual recep- 
 
 £ 2 
 
52 PEIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 tion hour had not arrived, she must wait. 
 The visitor was annoyed at this, and said 
 loudly, ' Am I not mother of a queen ? Is 
 not my daughter married to the king? If 
 half the power of the state is hers, do I not 
 share in the other half?' The servants, of 
 course, explained that they were only obeying 
 orders. At the usual hour,' the vizier's wife 
 was introduced, and the queen received her 
 with great dignity. The vizier's wife, after 
 the usual ceremonies, complained of the 
 queen's servants, and my mistress answered 
 that they had received their orders from her, 
 and' could not be blamed for executing them. 
 It was to be regretted, she added, that the 
 vizier's wife had consented to bandy words 
 with them — they being rude and uneducated. 
 The vizier's wife made no suitable apology, 
 but went away in a huff. 
 
 That afternoon the queen saw her son, 
 the king, and explained the matter to him, 
 stating that she would not receive the vizier's 
 wife again unless she made a proper apology 
 for her rudeness. The king sent for his 
 father-in-law, and next day the vizier's wife 
 
MmOR TROUBLES. 53 
 
 came to the queen's durbar, threw herself at 
 her feet, and begged pardon for her rudeness 
 in arrogating to herself equahty with a prin- 
 cess of the royal house of Delhi, widow and 
 mother of kings. 
 
54 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 BAHAEA NISSA. 
 
 Of all the attendants of the queen, there 
 was none enjoyed so much of her confidence, 
 or to whom she showed so much favour, as 
 Bahara Nissa. Bahara Mssa, with her father 
 and mother and sister, came from the Punjab, 
 and the whole family were proficients in 
 music and singing. Her father, Kala Baha, 
 usually played the drum or tambourine, whilst 
 the two girls danced, and the mother sang. 
 Both the girls were tall, slim, hght-coloured, 
 and handsome. They were considered highly 
 educated in Lucknow, and their father had 
 taken every pains to render them accom- 
 phshed. On their journey from the Punjab 
 to Oudh, a man of some property, Hafiz, had 
 attached himself to the party, out of love for 
 Bahara Nissa. But she would never marry 
 
BAHARA NISSA. 55 
 
 him. Kala Baha probably expected that, in 
 such a court as that of Wajid Aly Shah, 
 their accomphshments of singing and dancing 
 would raise them to the highest pitch of 
 favour ; and he was not mistaken. 
 
 When they were introduced at court, the 
 eldest girl, Eushkee Alum, was married by 
 the king forthwith, by muta marriage, and 
 this was the only one of his muta marriages 
 that the queen my mistress honoured by her 
 presence. Generally, indeed, when she saw 
 all her son's wives drawn up to receive 
 her, as they sometimes were — for instance, 
 at Nowa Eoz, on New Year's day — she could 
 not refrain from laughing to see the congre- 
 gation of all kinds of women, and walked 
 on with her handkerchief at her mouth, 
 receiving their salaams and congratulations. 
 She was a princess born, and they were 
 chiefly women of no rank by birth. 
 
 When Eushkee Alum was thus added to 
 the number of the king's wives by muta, 
 Bahara Mssa was taken into the service of 
 the queen my mistress. The father and 
 mother of the two girls also got apartments 
 
56 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEX. 
 
 in the palace, and Bahara Nissa entered into 
 an agreement not to marry for five years. 
 She got a thousand rupees a month from the 
 queen for her attendance, besides rich and 
 valuable presents on all festive occasions. It 
 was not usual for the queen to take up 
 thus with dancing or singing girls, or with 
 strangers of any kind, and therefore, Bahara 
 Nissa's case being so exceptional, she had 
 aU the more influence in consequence. The 
 queen trusted her in every matter, and her 
 good sense and prudence, for two years at 
 least, justified this confidence. 
 
 At the end of about two years, however, 
 it so happened that a ranee, widow of a 
 rajah from Nanpara, in the Baraitch district, 
 came to court to prefer some complaint of 
 oppression to the queen, accompanied by 
 her brother-in-law, the late rajah's younger 
 brother. The young man's name was Pearee 
 Sahib, and he was tall and good-looking, and 
 of a hght colour. Bahara Nissa saw him in 
 the courtyard more than once, and 'was 
 smitten with love for him. What! can we 
 conquer our own hearts? Of course, she 
 
BAHAEA NISSA. 57 
 
 knew it was contrary to her agreement — she 
 was endangering all her court favour, every- 
 thing, and yet she persevered. She sent a 
 message to him, to say she loved him. He 
 came by stealth. She danced and sang for 
 him, and he was captivated ; and they bribed 
 a moollah to marry them. They were married 
 thus privately, and the queen was ignorant 
 of it, and but few of the household even 
 were aware of it. Notwithstanding all the 
 remonstrances of her family, Pearee Sahib 
 lived near the palace, and Bahara Mssa saw 
 him constantly by stealth. He was her law- 
 ful husband. She had never been married 
 before. 
 
 It was about three or four months after 
 this marriage that Hafiz, the Mussulman 
 gentleman who had followed Bahara Nissa 
 in the vain hope of marrying her, took very 
 ill, and died. He sent the most pressing 
 messages to her, asking her to visit him once 
 during his illness before he died ; but she 
 would not. He wrote to the queen, and the 
 queen gave her permission to go ; but she 
 was obstinate, and would not. Perhaps she 
 
58 PKIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 feared poison or assassination at his hands, 
 on account of her marriage. How can I 
 tell? But I do not beheve he knew any- 
 thing of her marriage. At all events, after 
 eight or nine days' constant suffering, and 
 always caUing upon her name, he died, alone 
 and unfriended by her, for whom he had 
 sacrificed his family, his country, and his 
 wealth. 
 
 Bahara Mssa was now likely to become a 
 mother, and feared exceedingly lest the queen 
 should become aware of it, and of the cause, 
 her secret marriage. Days and nights of 
 anxiety and of alarm did Bahara Nissa pass, 
 pondering over what would be her probable 
 fate — for the punishments in a court are 
 severe. At length, she resolved to take 
 medicines, and to produce miscarriage. The 
 queen saw that her favourite was changed, 
 and that gloom and unhappiness were taking 
 the place of her former life, spirits, and 
 gaiety; but the cause was unknown and unsus- 
 pected. At length, Bahara Nissa was confined 
 to her chamber, in great suffering, and un- 
 able to continue her attendance. The queen 
 
BAHARA NISSA. 59 
 
 questioned her servants, and one of her old 
 faithful slaves, thinking that Bahara Nissa's 
 career at court was now at an end, told the 
 whole story. At first the queen would not 
 beheve it ; but when the facts were repeated 
 again and again, she took one of her oldest 
 and most confidential nurses with her, and 
 went direct to Bahara Mssa's chamber. 
 There, of course, she soon discovered the 
 truth of the statement she had heard, and 
 she returned, vexed and angry, to her own 
 apartment. 
 
 And now behold how good and kind a 
 mistress our queen was ! Another queen 
 would have had both Bahara Mssa and her 
 husband impaled upon red-hot iron stakes, 
 or taken some other vengeance equally signal, 
 for was not punishment well merited by 
 both of them ? But our queen was not such. 
 She simply put Pearee Sahib into prison, 
 and banished Bahara Nissa from her pre- 
 sence, giving her, however, an ample allow- 
 ance, and sending word to her that the crime 
 she had committed in destroying her infant 
 was greater than in breaking her engagement. 
 
60 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTEEN QUEEN. 
 
 Bahara Nissa was long ill. Her life was 
 in danger. Her sister exerted herself in 
 behalf of Pearee Sahib, and he was released 
 after three days. On her recovery, Bahara 
 Nissa came often to pay her respects to the 
 queen, but for a long time she was not 
 admitted, nor were her letters and petitions 
 answered. But the queen's heart was soft, 
 and in a few months she relented, and 
 Bahara Mssa was restored to place and 
 favour. 
 
 Years rolled on, and there were rumours 
 that all was not right. It was said the 
 English were very angry with the king, who 
 spent all his time in dancing and singing 
 and fiddhng — sometimes in female, some- 
 times in male attire, surrounded by his wives 
 and eunuchs. The queen my mistress often 
 remonstrated with him, and cried bitterly 
 over his follies and his inattention to her 
 remonstrances. But it was of no avail. 
 Bahara Nissa was a faithful attendant to her, 
 and was faithful also to her husband — a rare 
 thing in a dancing girl. 
 
 At length the catastrophe came. One 
 
BAHARA NISSA. 61 
 
 morning the queen was dressing after her 
 bath, everything as usual, when a large 
 sealed letter was brought in to her. The- 
 messenger said it was from the vizier, and 
 was most important. The queen read 
 Persian Hke a moonshi, and immediately, 
 half-dressed as she was, opened the letter 
 and read it. I was preparing the hookah in 
 the same room. I saw the letter opened. 
 I saw the queen's face turning paler and 
 paler as she read it. At length, holding the 
 letter in her hands, and without stopping to 
 put on her shoes, she walked rapidly out 
 into the courtyard, exclaiming, 'The kingdom 
 is destroyed ! ' It was in the Dowlut Khana, 
 and the courtyard alone separated us from 
 the king's apartments. Thither went the 
 queen, bareheaded and barefooted, hastily. 
 Several of us followed ; one with a muslin 
 sheet or veil, another with the shoes, another 
 with an umbrella. She pushed us aside as 
 we offered one thing and another. ' No, no,' 
 said she, ' I must do without attendance, as 
 I must do without a throne — perhaps with- 
 out a home or food — in my old age.' And 
 
62 PKIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 the queen wept as she went, and Bahara 
 Nissa wept as she followed, and we all went 
 after them, and lamented with beating of 
 breasts, although we knew not for certain 
 what calamity had happened. 
 
 The queen walked without ceremony or 
 announcement straight into the room where 
 the king her son was sitting. None hindered 
 her, all made way for her, wondering and in 
 silence. 
 
 The king was sitting alone and crying. 
 Wlien he saw his mother the queen enter, 
 he covered his face with his hands, and 
 sobbed aloud. She made him three salaams 
 as she advanced, saying, ' Are you now satis- 
 fied ? Have you got at last the wages of your 
 dancing, your singing, and your fiddling .? 
 Have I not often told you it would come to 
 this? . Did any of your fathers sing and 
 dance and fiddle in women's clothes ? ' Ba- 
 hara Nissa alone ventured to remonstrate 
 with the queen. The king said never a word. 
 
 After some httle expostulation on the part 
 of Bahara Nissa, the queen ceased her 
 reproaches, and said, ' It is true. All this is 
 
BAHAKA NISSA. 63 
 
 too late now ; leave us alone/ We all 
 turned and went out, and the queen alone 
 remained with her son, taking her mushn 
 veil as we departed. About two or three 
 o'clock in the afternoon, the Enghsh resident 
 came, and there was another long conference, 
 at which the queen was present. In the 
 evening soldiers came into Lucknow from 
 the cantonments, and the cannon were re- 
 moved from the palaces, and we knew that 
 the king's reign was at an end, and that the 
 English raj had begun. 
 
 It was at this trying time that Bahara 
 Mssa greatly comforted the queen by her 
 counsels and her sympathy. She was an 
 invaluable attendant, always calm, self-pos- 
 sessed, and prudent. 
 
 The great men of the kingdom came to 
 offer troops and munitions of war to fight 
 against the Enghsh, but the king refused. 
 They then came to the queen my mistress, 
 and she took a night to think over it ; and 
 next morning, as Bahara Nissa had advised, 
 she also said ' No.' That very day the queen 
 aimounced her intention of going to England 
 
64 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 to US all. 'I will go,' said she, 'to tlie 
 English queen. She is also the mother of a 
 son, and I will ask her not to take my son's 
 crown from him. Has she not crowns and 
 kingdoms and wealth enough? Must all 
 the world belong to one ? ' ' How shall you 
 go ?' said we ; ' you that fear a river so much 
 — ^how shall you go, and cross the great 
 black water, the boundless sea ? ' But she 
 would not hsten to us, and Bahara Nissa 
 began to prepare for the journey, for Bahara 
 Nissa had said she would take her husband 
 with her, and go with the queen to England. 
 The king went to Calcutta a fortnight after- 
 wards, and was no more a king, except in 
 name. 
 
 One of the preparations for the journey 
 consisted in the construction of a large brick 
 chamber, built under a reservoir of water in 
 the palace, for the reception of jewels, gold 
 and silver furniture of all kinds, and other 
 treasure which the queen did not want to 
 take with her to England. The water was 
 drained off. An underground compartment 
 was constructed, and the valuables were 
 
BAHARA NISSA. 65 
 
 placed in it, covered with matting and oiled 
 cloth, or wax-cloth. A flat brick roof sup- 
 ported on beams was then built, and this roof 
 was the bottom of the tank or reservoir. 
 The water was let in, and all appeared to be 
 as before. It is said that several lacs' worth 
 (or tens of thousands of pounds' worth) of 
 property was deposited in that chamber, and 
 so secretly was the work done, that only a 
 few even of our household knew of it. Ba- 
 hara Mssa trusted and befriended me, and I 
 knew it. 
 
 At length all things were ready for the 
 journey to England, and the queen, with 
 some of her attendants, Bahara Nissa and 
 myself amongst the number, started for Cal- 
 cutta. All the rest of the household had 
 been discharged or pensioned off. 
 
 The queen took water enough with her on 
 starting from Lucknow to supply her till her 
 arrival in Calcutta. Why she should have 
 done so, I don't know. There did not appear 
 to be any want of water on the road. 
 
 Bahara Nissa took her husband with her 
 to England ; and on the queen's death, made 
 
66 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 the pilgrimage with him to Mecca, before 
 returning to Lucknow. Gholam Hussain, my 
 husband, accompanied me. Arrived safely in 
 Calcutta, the queen my mistress resolved to 
 visit her son's chief wife, Khash Mehal, and to 
 depart in friendship with all. There had been 
 no communication between them since the 
 attempt to poison the hookah, formerly 
 described. The queen was living with the 
 ex-king in Calcutta, and, in pursuance of her 
 plan of being at enmity with none before her 
 departure, went one day unannounced into 
 Khash Mehal's apartment. Khash Mehal saw 
 her enter, got up quickly, and left the room. 
 The queen then turned to Bahara Mssa, and 
 said, ' Here am I, the head and the elder, 
 stooping to effect a reconcihation with my 
 daughter-in-law, whom I have never injured, 
 and my face is blackened, I am treated with 
 contempt.' Bahara Mssa went to the atten- 
 dants of Khash Mehal, got her own sister 
 also to use her influence ; and just as the 
 queen my mistress was turning to depart, 
 Khash Mehal came into the apartment, threw 
 herself on the queen's neck, and embraced 
 
BAHAEA NISSA. 67 
 
 her. Thus happily was a reunion effected 
 before the queen's final departure to Europe 
 where she died. 
 
 Bitterly, very bitterly, did the queen weep 
 the day she took leave of her son, the ex-king 
 and his children, to go on board the steamer 
 that was to carry her off. Bahara Nissa 
 accompanied her, and managed everything 
 for her. She was always wise and prudent. 
 Evil luck was there, however; for, as the 
 goods were being handed into the steamer, 
 one box of ornaments dropped into the water 
 and was lost. We all regarded it as an evil 
 omen, and the queen, as we all know, never 
 returned. Her son the general went with her. 
 
 On the death of the queen in Europe, 
 Bahara Nissa returned to Lucknow, and 
 Hved with her husband Pearee Sahib. She is 
 Hving there now. They are both alive, and 
 although her beauty is not now what it once 
 was, yet her form is still elegant, her black 
 hair is rich and lustrous, and three feet long, 
 and her husband loves her. Children ! no, 
 she has no children. That is the punishment 
 of her crime, just as my being childless is 
 r2 
 
68 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 my evil fate, in that I eat up my mother's hfe 
 at my birth. God's will be done. T take a 
 little opium, and am content. 
 
 There is no more to be said of Bahara 
 Nissa : but what of the treasure that was 
 buried under the cistern ? you ask. It is a 
 long story. When I returned to Lucknow, 
 with my husband, he resumed his shop near 
 the palace. But the English began knock- 
 ing down bazaars and planting grass every- 
 where, and, amongst the rest, our bazaar 
 was swept away. We lived for some time 
 on the jewels and ornaments I had collected 
 in the queen's service, and we were both 
 getting poorer when, just before the mutiny 
 broke out, one of the (peen's muta wives 
 then in Lucknow, mother of a son, Brijis 
 Kudr by name, asked me to live with her. 
 I went, and, when the mutiny broke out a 
 few months after, the sepoys came and took 
 ferijis Kudr to make him king in the room 
 of his father in Calcutta. He was but a 
 child, and his mother was very averse to his 
 
BAHAKA NISSA. 69 
 
 being made king, for she knew herself, and 
 many told her, it would not be for long, and 
 that when the Enghsh caught him, they 
 would hang him. She threw herself at the 
 feet of the sepoy officer who came to take 
 her son to the great mosque to be crowned, 
 and cried out, 'He is my only son — spare 
 him — ^he is not the rightful heir — you know 
 he is not — do not make him king — between 
 you and the Enghsh he will be sure to be 
 killed/ But some people's hearts are hard 
 as grmding-stones, and the sepoys' hearts 
 were not soft. They took him, and made 
 him king, and his mother was treated with 
 royal state, but she knew it was all mockery,' 
 and but for a short time, and her heart was 
 sad. 
 
 How she came to hear of the treasure 
 that the queen my mistress had buried, I 
 do not know. But she did hear of it, and 
 wanted me to point out where it was. She 
 knew that silver bedsteads, stools, cups, 
 plates, and golden ornaments were all hidden 
 somewhere, and I was importuned about it. 
 But I would rather have been torn asunder 
 
70 PEIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 by wild horses than betray my mistress's 
 secret. All that she could say, all that her 
 attendants could say, would not drag the 
 secret from me ; and seeing that she was 
 getting angry about it, I left her service and 
 fled to my native village. I found no rest 
 there. I was a sheeah, an outcast, and I 
 had no friends. At length, after much wan- 
 dering, I returned to Lucknow, and the first 
 news I heard from my husband, on finding 
 him again, was that some one else had in- 
 formed Brijis Kudr's mother where the trea- 
 sure was, and she had found it. I went to 
 the place by stealth, and found it even so. 
 The cistern was dry, the bottom of it torn 
 up, the secret chamber half filled with rub- 
 bish, and all the treasure gone. 
 
 Yes! for two or three years after the 
 mutiny we lived very well, I and my hus- 
 band. We were well off. He was success- 
 ful in business. But then everything went 
 wrong, and I became a servant to English 
 ladies. My mistress is very good, but I 
 shall never get such a mistress as the queen 
 again. 
 
7X 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 NEW year's day. 
 
 NowA Eoz, or New Year's day, was a time 
 of family reunion and feasting in the palace, 
 as it is amongst poorer Mussulmans. I can 
 remember, when a child at home, before I 
 was carried off to Lucknow, that on New 
 Year's day we got new dresses, and that we 
 sprinkled each other with a red fluid made by 
 boiling down the flower called har singal, 
 and that all the family met together for 
 feasting and congratulations and giving of 
 presents. The beginning of the New Year 
 was considered a fit time, the fittest time, for 
 mirth and fun and jollity. 
 
 Now it was exactly the same at the palace, 
 only that, of course, everything was done in a 
 more formal way ; and everything was rich 
 and splendid, not poor and dirty and squahd 
 as in the villages. 
 
72 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 The king always paid his mother, the 
 queen my mistress, the comphment to come 
 to her early on New Year's day, with Khash 
 Mehal, his chief wife, and her son the heir 
 apparent, to offer nuzzers or presents, and to 
 wish her health, prosperity, and long life. 
 On that day the queen put on her bravest 
 apparel, and was loaded with jewellery. All 
 her household took a pride in seeing her look 
 her best, and wearing her richest clothing and 
 ornaments ; and throughout the year, it was 
 often on New Year's day only that she would 
 consent to be thus decked out. 
 
 When the king and Khash Mehal and the 
 heir apparent had presented their gifts, then 
 came a troop of the king'^ wives, a hundred 
 or a hundred and twenty of them, whom 
 the queen would not receive at other times. 
 Some of them were mere children, many of 
 them very pretty, some old, one was a negress, 
 but all came trooping in in their best clothes, 
 to the great amusement of the queen, who 
 never looked upon them all without laughing. 
 
 Then came the general, with his eldest son 
 and one or two of his wives ; but those 
 
NEW YEAE'S DAY. 73 
 
 whom he considered pretty, or whom he 
 valued, the general never brought, lest his 
 brother the king should see them and take 
 them to himself. All came with gifts. 
 
 Great pitchers of red dye stood ready for 
 use in the verandahs, and the queen sprinkled 
 a httle, a very little, on each, and was in 
 turn sprinkled by them. Sweetmeats were 
 then handed round, and the morning's amuse- 
 ments wound up with the servants trooping 
 into the courtyard, and plentifully daubing 
 each other over with the dye, which was done 
 with much mirth and laughter. 
 
 Fans, large and small, to be used by the 
 hand, were prepared for this day, and were 
 neatly trimmed with red cloth, and handed 
 from one to the other, with a slight waving, 
 as if to fan the party to whom each fan was 
 offered. 
 
 Such were the morning's amusements — 
 such, combined with music and dancing and 
 singing, which were never wanting in the 
 palace on occasions of mirth and festivity. 
 But it was in the evening that the greatest, 
 hilarity prevailed. For two or three hours 
 
74 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN 
 
 in the afternoon the queen usually lay down, 
 fatigued with the morning's ceremony, but 
 she never lay down without first reading 
 prayers from the Koran, so zealous in reli- 
 gious matters was she. 
 
 The longest room in the palace was the 
 scene of festivity in the evening, and in this 
 preparation was made for the family banquet. 
 New carpets were spread, and over them two 
 long cloths from end to end, on each side of 
 which plates were arranged. At right angles 
 to this, across the top of the rOom, was 
 another cloth, supported by a carpet of the 
 richest material, fringed with gold lace. The 
 most splendid cushions were here made ready, 
 and massive gold and silver articles displayed 
 on all sides. At this shorter tablecloth, the 
 seat of honour, at the upper end of the room, 
 the queen my mistress, and the king, and 
 Khash Mehal, and the heir apparent, and 
 the general and his eldest son, took their 
 places, amid the loud flourish of trum- 
 pets, the playing of bands, and the roar of 
 cannon. 
 
 The chandeliers from the roof were all lit 
 
NEW year's day. 7& 
 
 up, and the wall-shades by the sides of the 
 large mirrors on the walls ; the room was a 
 blaze of light, and the sparkling of gold and 
 silver cups, and plates, and jewellery, and 
 rich dresses, reflected back by the large 
 mirrors, made a gorgeous scene. It was as 
 the court of Indra, the palace of the Peris. 
 Then came the other wives of the king, 
 trooping in, to take their places — some tall, 
 some short, dark and fair, young and old, 
 beautiful and ugly, all in rich kinkobs and 
 cloths of gold, wearing their finest jewellery, 
 and soft silvery voices rang forth in laughter, 
 and the sweet tones of girlhood were mingled 
 with the roar of drums and trumpets and 
 all kinds of musical instruments without. The 
 English are a great people, and do mighty 
 wonders, but they have no assemblies like 
 that so rich and gorgeous and splendid. 
 Down the whole length of the room the 
 chandeliers flashed upon rich garments and 
 gems, and many beautiful faces, all reflected 
 in the mirrors around ; and as the music with- 
 out ceased, and the banquet began, the hum 
 of many voices rose from the long Hues of 
 
76 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTEEN QUEEIS". 
 
 sitting figures, subdued voices, and whis- 
 pering intermingled with the soft laugh of 
 girlhood, and happiness was over all. 
 
 And I, did I not see it ? Was I not every 
 year in the room ? Who gave the queen her 
 hookah, but I ? and who could once see that 
 beautiful scene, and fail to remember it for 
 ever after ? 
 
 When the banquet was concluded, music 
 and singing and dancing filled up the hours 
 till near midnight — no entertainment lasted 
 over midnight. In that, as in so many other 
 things, the feasts and festivals of the court 
 were unhke the rejoicings and parties of the 
 sahibs. Have I not seen the balls and parties 
 of the English sahibs and ladies continue till 
 the morning ? It was never so at court. 
 
 Two years before annexation, the queen 
 my mistress was not on good terms with the 
 king her son. I do not know what was the 
 cause of difference. Doubtless it was con- 
 nected with some affairs of state. I was but 
 a slave who prepared the hookah : what could 
 I know of it ? However, this I know, that 
 on that occasion the king did not come as> 
 
IS-EW YEARS DAY. 77 
 
 usual with Khash Mehal and his eldest son, 
 the heir apparent, to pay the usual morning 
 visit, with presents, and the queen was sad, 
 but said nothing. In the evening aU was as 
 usual. The general, who loved the queen his 
 mother, and was beloved by her, had come, 
 as was the custom ; and, on the next New 
 Year's day the general came early to his 
 mother* s court to present his gifts, and to 
 offer his congratulations, and stopped with 
 her, not going, as was his wont, to visit the 
 king also. The king noticed the absence of 
 the general, and asked about it, and they 
 told him, ' He is with the queen his mother.' 
 The king waited for him to come all day, but 
 finding he did not, and fearing that some 
 family intrigue might be formed against him, 
 for the English were daily threatening — so it 
 is said, at least — he came towards evening to 
 pay his usual visit to his mother. 
 
 The queen had been lying down, and when 
 she heard he was come, she went and lay 
 down again, and ordered her attendants to 
 tell the king she was lying down as usual, and 
 would not be disturbed. He waited some 
 
78 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 time, and tlien went away, and we hastened 
 to tell the queen. On hearing this, she arose 
 But the king had only gone round, and 
 entered her apartments by another way, and 
 before any news could be brought, himself 
 entered the room where she was, the female 
 guards not daring to prevent him. ' Did you 
 not tell me his majesty had gone ? ' she asked 
 of her attendants on seeing him, and for some 
 time she refused to speak to him, or to 
 receive his present. But at length she re- 
 lented, and conversed amicably with him, 
 and all was as usual, except that she would 
 not recognise or acknowledge Khash Mehal 
 at all. 
 
 On the last New Year's day before annex- 
 ation, the king came with his eldest son so 
 early that the queen was not ready to receive 
 him, and he was kept waiting a short time. 
 She certainly had great weight in the king- 
 dom, and was highly esteemed both by the 
 English resident and by the nobility for her 
 virtue, prudence, and wisdom. Perhaps it 
 was on this account the king strove so much 
 not to offend her. 
 
79 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 MINOR EELIGIOUS FESTIVALS AND FASTS. 
 
 The fast of the Eamazan was rigidly kept 
 at the palace. For thirty days, sometimes in 
 the hottest months of the year, nothing was 
 allowed to be eaten or drunk from sunrise to 
 sunset. Women who are in the family- way, 
 and who are nursing, are exempted from this 
 rigorous abstinence in the Koran, but no 
 exceptions were made in the queen's court- 
 Nor meat, nor drink, nor the hookah, was 
 permitted for those thirty days, from sunrise 
 to sunset. As soon as it was proclaimed from 
 the minarets that the sun was down, the long 
 day's fast was first broken by a pinch of salt, 
 and then a long draught of water, or sherbet, 
 or some cooling drink, previously prepared, 
 was brought in and partaken of. Eating, 
 drinking, and prayers filled up the night, for 
 we all slept as much as possible in the day, 
 
80 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 to get over the long day's fast as pleasantly 
 as possible. 
 
 On the first appearance of the moon after 
 the fast of the Eamazan, the feast of the Ede 
 commenced. It is a day of joy and visiting 
 of friends, and mutual congratulations. New 
 clothes are v^orn and gifts are given and 
 received. At the great musjid we had a grand 
 service at nine o'clock in the morning on the 
 Ede day, to which the queen always went, 
 and returned home to partake plentifully 
 and joyfully of the favourite dish of the season, 
 semay (a kind of vermicelh), which was boiled 
 in milk, with dates, pistachio nuts, and spices 
 to flavour it — an excellent dish when pro- 
 perly prepared. The queen always warned 
 us on the morning of the Ede to abstain 
 from angry words, disputes, and quarrelling 
 during the whole of that day. On that day 
 especially all should be peace and harmony 
 and thankfulness. The children too got pre- 
 sents of toys on the Ede, and in the evening 
 the gardens were Ht up, and, with fruit and 
 flowers and music and dancing and singing, 
 the hardships of the Eamazan were forgotten. 
 
MINOR RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS, ETC. 81 
 
 The Bukra Ede (Ede of the goat), cele- 
 brated some days after the Ede, is in remem- 
 brance of Abraham having been about to 
 sacrifice his son Ishmael, v^hen the angel 
 stopped him, and threw down a goat from 
 heaven for him to sacrifice instead. It was 
 not his son Isaac he was going to sacrifice, 
 but Ishmael — is it not all written in the 
 Koran ? Well, when the goat fell, it so hap- 
 pened that it fell on a fish and a locust, and 
 killed them both ; and hence a fish and a 
 locust are the only two animals a good Mus- 
 sulman can eat, without having them first 
 killed by cutting their throats. The queen 
 used to explain aU these things to us, as 
 we waited on her. She was learned as a 
 mooUah. 
 
 On the Bukra Ede every good Mussul- 
 man must eat the flesh of a goat, if he 
 wishes to get into Paradise. The queen libe- 
 rally supphed us with goat's flesh on the 
 Bukra Ede, and besides that had two camels 
 killed, so that every servant of the household 
 might get a small portion of camel's flesh to 
 eat. Those who sacrifice and eat camels on 
 
82 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 the Bukra Ede will enter Paradise riding on 
 a camel, whilst other good and true believers 
 will only enter it on a goat. Now^, the ad- 
 vantage of riding the camel is, that from the 
 trees of Paradise the riders on the camel can 
 pluck the luscious fruit as they go along, 
 whilst those riding on the goat cannot reach 
 it. All this, and more of religious knowledge, 
 did we learn from our good mistress the 
 queen, who was learned and pious. 
 
 The Subrath is a feast of woe, in honour of the 
 
 dead. Flour, ghee or clarified butter, sugar, 
 
 almonds, and raisins, are all made into a kind 
 
 of paste, called hulwa. When all is ready, 
 
 and cakes of unleavened bread baked, a 
 
 space is cleared for the ceremony, and a 
 
 pan with fire in it placed in the midst. 
 
 Pive unleavened cakes are placed in the 
 
 cleared space round the fire. The family 
 
 dead are then enumerated one by one, name 
 
 by name, and as each name is mentioned a 
 
 portion of the cake and of the hulwa is 
 
 dropped into the fire, and good wishes for 
 
 his condition in the future hfe are expressed. 
 
 All the family dead for two generations back 
 
MINOR RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS, ETC. 83 
 
 were thus named in the queen's household, 
 but it is not right on these occasions to men- 
 tion those who have died within two moons 
 of the Subrath. If five or six moons 
 have elapsed, then the names may be men- 
 tioned; audit being the first mention of them, 
 a longer address is made use of, and more 
 ceremony used in naming the name of the 
 deceased. The ceremony is then concluded 
 by pouring out forty j ars of water. Forty is a 
 sacred number, the queen explained to us — 
 many events being recorded in the Koran 
 with forty attached — forty days, forty years, 
 forty prophets, forty stars, and such Hke. 
 The rich add to this giving of alms to the 
 poor, and in the doing of this our queen was 
 very hberal, and we servants had our httle 
 advantages in it. Lastly lamps are ht upon the 
 graves of the deceased, which makes the 
 Subrath of the Mussulmans look like the 
 Dewalee of the Hindus. But they are very 
 different. Are not the Hindus pagans and 
 worshippers of idols and unbehevers ? 
 
 G 2 
 
84 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 THE MOHUERIM. 
 
 The Mohurrim is a time of mourning kept 
 in remembrance of the deaths of Hassain 
 and Hoossen, the sons of Huzrut Aly.* The 
 Soonnies only celebrate the Mohurrim for ten 
 days, and they carry about no images or 
 models. The Sheeahs celebrate the festival 
 for forty days, with much parade, and images, 
 and models, and some acting. During this 
 fast, or festival of woe, no tobacco or pawn 
 (betel-nut chewed with spices and lime) is 
 used, and men and women are not to indulge 
 in any sensual pleasures, but all ought to 
 mourn and lament, with soul and body. 
 The queen kept the Mohurrim so strictly, 
 
 * The term Huzrut is equivalent to our Saint. Noah 
 and Abraham and Christ are always spoken of by 
 Mussulmans as Huzrut Noah, &c. 
 
THE MOHUKRIM. 85 
 
 that she would not change her clothes those 
 forty days, used no oil or sweet scents, put 
 no missee (tooth-powder) to her teeth, nor 
 mayndee (colouring matter hke rouge) to her 
 hands or feet, and left off all her ornaments. 
 No marriages ought to be celebrated or con- 
 tracted during the Mohurrim, and in properly 
 conducted households the men and women 
 Hve separately at that time. 
 
 Every Mohurrim the queen instructed us 
 diligently in the story of the deaths of Hassain 
 and Hoossen, and I heard it all so often that 
 I remember every word of it. The queen 
 would tell it thus : — 
 
 Shortly after the time of the Prophet, 
 whose name be always blessed, there were 
 four brothers, leaders of the faithful : their 
 names were Huzrut Aly, Yahudy, Zenabia 
 Abas Alaam, and Zenabia Ameen Alaam. 
 They disagreed amongst themselves on points 
 of faith, too difficult for servants to under- 
 stand ; Abas Alaam sided with Huzrut Aly, 
 who was the true follower of the Prophet, 
 and Ameen Alaam sided with Yahudy, who 
 was a father of error. The commander-in- 
 
SQ PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 chief of Huzmt Aly's forces was Syud Saldr, 
 who, after a little, deserted, with all his forces, 
 to Yahudy, and a civil war began. Cursed 
 be those that breed dissension amongst the 
 faithful ! In the course of the war Yahudy, 
 whose name and memory be for ever defiled, 
 bribed one of the bodyguard of Huzrut Aly 
 to cut off his chief's head, and the bribe was 
 his daughter in marriage, the betrothed of 
 Hassain, son of Huzrut Aly. This girl was 
 beautiful as a houri, and the bribe was more 
 than enough to corrupt even a good man. 
 But so attached and devoted were the few 
 followers of the saint, that the one who was 
 faithless waited long in vain for an oppor- 
 tunity to execute his wicked purpose, bom 
 of the devil. The army of Yahudy was 
 large, and Huzrut Aly, with only a few fol- 
 lowers, was shut up, besieged, and in want of 
 all things — water and provisions and ammu- 
 nition. 
 
 At length the day of the martyrdom of the 
 saint dawned. As he was on his way to the 
 musjid for morning prayers, according to his 
 wont, a goose caught hold of his robe, and 
 
THE MOHURRIM. 87 
 
 would have prevented his going. He laughed 
 only, and said, ' I know my enemy is waiting 
 for me.' A little further on, a goat would 
 have impeded him, but he gave the same 
 answer, and went on his way. From that 
 day the goose and the goat are animals 
 esteemed by all good Sheeahs as sacred. 
 As the saint entered the musjid, the traitor, 
 who had been bribed, was standing behind 
 the door hidden, and lifted his sword unseen 
 of all but God and the saint. ' Strike,' said 
 the saint, ' I fear not.' The weapon fell from 
 the hand of the traitor, and the saint passed 
 on. But the devil gives strength to his own, 
 and the traitor watched the saint, and when 
 he was bowing his head in earnest prayer, 
 the traitor — may curses light on him and all 
 his posterity! — cut off the saint's head with 
 one blow, and escaped. The two sons of the 
 saint, Hassain and Hoossen, aided by God, 
 carried on the war. And now the camp of 
 the faithful was suffering dreadfully from 
 want of water. One of the four daughters of 
 Huzrut Aly was in the camp, beautiful as a 
 peri, and she too was in torture for want of 
 
88 PEIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 water. Her uncle Abas Alaam loved her, 
 saw her sufferings, and, taking a skin for 
 water, cut his way through the enemy to a 
 well, and filled the skin with water, though 
 exposed to the fire of an army. As he was 
 carrjdng off the skin full of water, he was 
 wounded in the shoulder, and his arm was 
 disabled, and the skin of water fell to the 
 ground. He seized it then with his teeth, 
 and was wounded again as he carried it along. 
 The enemy fired their arrows at the skin to 
 let the water out, and when he arrived where 
 his niece was, there was but enough to 
 quench her thirst, and he laid down and died. 
 In the meantime the body of Huzrut Aly 
 lay for a whole month undecayed in the 
 musjid, which was at a considerable distance 
 from the quarters of the faithful. Hassain and 
 Hoossen determined to set out to bring in 
 their father's body. All their female relations 
 dissuaded them with many tears, saying, 'You 
 too will be killed ;' but they felt no fear, and 
 prepared their horses, and a mule to carry 
 the body, and set out fully armed. Arrived 
 ^t the musjid, they found a tiger guarding 
 
THE mohuerim:. 89 
 
 the body. They lifted the corpse, put it on 
 the mule's back, and no sooner got outside 
 the musjid, than they were furiously attacked. 
 Holding the string of the led mule, they 
 fought their way back, but the string was 
 cut, and the mule went off with the body, 
 and they fainting and wounded got back alive. 
 Soon after in a great battle the forces of 
 the faithful were routed by the enemy, on 
 whose heads be shame ; and the two sons 
 and the brother of Huzrut Aly were killed in 
 the fight. Notice was brought to Lady Fatima, 
 the widow of the saint, and she and her four 
 daughters, weeping and barefooted, throw- 
 ing ashes on their heads, went forth to seek 
 for the dead. After long search in vain, they 
 took refuge, tired and weary, in a tent. 
 
 And now behold the perfidy of slaves ! 
 Whoso trusteth in a slave will be certain to 
 be betrayed, and the Prophet saith likewise. 
 A slave of the saint saw them there, and, 
 anxious to gain the favour of Yahudy, tore 
 their veils from them, and turned them out 
 of the tent with blows, and thus, with ex- 
 posed faces, and barefooted, went forth the 
 
90 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 weeping widow and daughters of the saint, 
 with none to help them — a piteous case ! 
 
 Weeping and lamenting, they wandered 
 forth on the battle-field, and their great 
 enemy Yahudy saw them, recognised them, 
 and, smiling, left them to their fate. Hard 
 as adaniant the heart of the wicked ! But 
 faithless as slaves are and will be, yet now a 
 slave befriended them ; showing that, even 
 amongst the worst of mankind, there are 
 some good. This slave conducted them to a 
 forest, where they might lie concealed, and 
 Fatima spun, and her daughters ground corn, 
 and thus they supported themselves, in retire- 
 ment, ungazed upon by man. They had no 
 veils, but Fatima and her daughters collected 
 in the forest 180 pieces of rags, and, having 
 washed them, made a sheet for a veil, which 
 they wore in turn when they went out. 
 Perseverance and trust in God will overcome 
 all evils. 
 
 Things continued thus for a month or so, 
 when a wicked band of the enemy, children 
 of the devil, found them out, and murdered 
 them all without pity, mercy, or remorse. 
 
THE MOHURRIM. 91 
 
 Such was the story of Hassain and Hoossen, 
 as the queen told it to us, weeping as she 
 told it, and we never heard it without loud 
 lamentations and beating of breasts, and 
 tears. A representation of the tomb of the 
 martjnrs, called the tazia, is carried in proces- 
 sion at the end of the Mohurrim, and buried. 
 
 In the palace, tazias of rich materials were 
 always kept in some of the largest apartments, 
 and carried about in procession at the Mo- 
 hurrim. During the lifetime of Umjid Aly 
 Shah there were only two of these tazias of 
 silver, each with its silver altar before it ; but 
 in the reign of Wajid Aly there were nine of 
 them, and they were kept in the silver hara- 
 dhurry in the palace. The silver altars were 
 covered vdth a black cloth, at the time of the 
 Mohurrim, and on these altars votive offerings 
 called alums, silver hands in shape, and dag- 
 gers and swords and such-like, were displayed 
 to view. 
 
 On the floor between the tazias curiously 
 shaped coloured lanterns were placed, with 
 scented wax candles in them, which were lit 
 at night. During the entire forty days the 
 
92 PEIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 baradhurry was brilliantly illuminated every 
 night, but on the ninth night the light was 
 as that of day. 
 
 On the seventh day a procession took place 
 in honour of Kassim, the cousin of Hassain, 
 who lost his life on his wedding-day, and 
 trays of silver covered wdth the leaves of the 
 mayndee are carried about then from house 
 to house, with weeping and lamentation. 
 The mayndee yields the red dye and paint 
 so much used in marriage feasts and proces- 
 sions, and hence the trays of mayndee carried 
 about in memory of Kassim's untimely death. 
 
 On the eighth day ceremonies are per- 
 formed in honour of Abas Alaam, who so 
 bravely brought the water for his favourite 
 niece. 
 
 But the ninth is the great day of the fast. 
 In the mosques there is then a continuous 
 reading of the Koran all day long, kept up 
 by successive relays of moollahs, and the hves 
 and deaths of Huzrut Aly and his martyred 
 family are related ; and on that night the 
 illumination in the palace and the bazaars 
 and the city was as if all the stars of heaven 
 
THE MOHURRIM. 93 
 
 had come down into Lucknow. The tazias 
 were carried about in procession, and a horse 
 — the horse of Hassain, called Dhool-dhool — 
 all stuck over with arrows, followed the tazias, 
 and the weeping women, with loud lamenta- 
 tions and beating of breasts, followed, and 
 the multitude took up the wail, and the city 
 mourned. 
 
 In the queen's household we had recita- 
 tions all night on that ninth night ; for the 
 queen was devout. None slept. The martyr- 
 dom of Huzrut Aly and his family was 
 described again and again, and prints of the 
 chief scenes in the saint's life were exhibited, 
 and we all wept and wailed all night long. I 
 remember particularly the pictures of Fatima 
 and her daughters, without veils and bare- 
 footed, the hut in the forest, and the spinning- 
 wheel, and the sheet of the 180 rags, and last 
 of all the horrid murder. Oh ! it was a sad 
 sight. Three times during the night a solemn 
 farewell to the dead brothers was spoken, the 
 last farewell just as day dawned. 
 
 On the morning of the day when all the 
 tazias, except the silver ones, were buried, 
 
94 PRIVATE LIFE OF AX EASTEEN QUEEN. 
 
 they were ranged in one of the courtyards 
 of the palace, and three hundred men, reciters 
 of the woes of the saint's martyrdom, and 
 the martyrdom of his family, were engaged, 
 and other men rattled together bits of wood 
 as the people lamented. The men and women 
 struck their breasts at intervals, shout- 
 ing 'Hassainl' and ' Hoossen!' and it was no 
 uncommon thing for blood to flow from this 
 striking of the breasts, and serious injury to 
 be done. On the conclusion of the recitation, 
 the queen my mistress and the king and all 
 the royal family walked in procession round 
 the tazias, three times. They then threw 
 dust and chopped-up straw into the air, in 
 imitation of the ashes Fatima and her daugh- 
 ters had strewn on their heads, and then all 
 of them uncovered their heads, and beat their 
 breasts, shouting ' Hassain ! Hoossen ! ' just 
 as the servants and the multitude did. The 
 farewell benediction was always spoken first 
 by the queen my mistress, and afterwards by 
 the king. 
 
 This done, the procession for the burial of 
 the tazias was formed. Bearers of alums or 
 
THE MOHURRIM. 95 
 
 votive offerings first, then readers and reciters, 
 then mourners, then more alum-bearers, and 
 so on, till the tazias themselves came ; the 
 readers and reciters and mourners with 
 each. The tazias were usually composed of 
 a framework of wood, covered with silk, and 
 the sides of talc or glass — all of the shape of 
 the tomb, decorated with flags and such hke, 
 of brilliant colours, with tinsel representa- 
 tions of the water-skin of Abas Alaam, the 
 spinning-wheel of Fatima, and other memor- 
 able objects connected with this mournful 
 history. 
 
 When the procession had gone ahead some 
 forty yards or so, the royal family followed 
 with uncovered heads — my mistress first. 
 Again they all beat their breasts, and cried 
 ' Hassain ! Hoossen ! ' and lamented. They went 
 so for about half a mile of enclosed walks, not 
 in the public roads, and then returned, in 
 their conveyance, to spend the day in read- 
 ing, and praying, and in religious exercises. 
 At least, so the queen spent it. No one was 
 allowed to eat a morsel of food, or to diink 
 a drop of water, all that day, till the proces- 
 
96 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 sion returned from the burial of the tazias, 
 which was about sunset. Even the sucking 
 infant on that day was deprived of its food 
 till the burial was over, so strict was the fast. 
 
 But rigorous as the fast really is, it is not 
 called a fast, and two or three grains of salt 
 are put on the tongue in the morning, to 
 prevent its being a fast, because it is said 
 that the wife of the traitor who slew Huzrut 
 Aly fasted for joy at the success of her hus- 
 band's treason. May her tomb be defiled ! 
 
 During the first five days of the Mohur- 
 rim, meat and drink were distributed to the 
 poor, and on the sixth and seventh days 
 large quantities of excellent and savoury 
 dishes were given away — kabobs, and pil- 
 laus, and khoormas. On the eighth day the 
 breakfast of Abas Alaam is ofiered, but only 
 those who are pure in mind and body, hav- 
 ing bathed and put on clean clothes, dare to 
 partake of it. Even mentioning his name 
 with unwashed mouth is a sin which has 
 been severely punished. On the afternoon 
 of the eighth day sherbet is given to the 
 poor in memory of Hassain, and on the 
 
THE MOHUERIM. 97 
 
 ninth day they get a preparation of rice and 
 milk, boiled together, and called khere. 
 
 The temple of Abas Alaam is crowded with 
 suppliants during the first ten days of the 
 Mohurrim. He is supposed to be beneficent 
 to all who worship in sincerity and pmity. 
 He grants cures of diseases, children, and 
 release from trouble and sorrow. If any 
 particular object be prayed for, such as a 
 child, a figure of it is ofiered. The figure 
 first offered is of httle or no value, but if the 
 gift is granted, then a figure of silver is 
 given. These offerings are made during the 
 Mohurrim, and after it is over the priests 
 take what they require for themselves, and 
 dispose of the rest for the benefit of the poor. 
 
 I know of many who got children by 
 prayers to Abas Alaam. The queen's daugh- 
 ter, whose marriage was not a happy one, 
 had been married some years without chil- 
 dren. She made a votive offering of a boy 
 in silver, and before next Mohurrim she had 
 a son. No, he is not alive now. He died 
 eighteen months after. She is childless now. 
 Such is fate. 
 
 H 
 
98 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 The last Mohurrim, before the Enghsh 
 rule, was in 1855, and everyone that was 
 there must remember how many signs there 
 were of coming misfortune. The horse of 
 Huzrut Aly, called Dhool-dhool, which 
 comes in apparently stuck with arrows, when 
 introduced into the baradhurry to go seven 
 times round the tazias, destroyed the carpet. 
 This was one omen. Again, two of the 
 chandehers in the palace fell, with a great 
 crash, on the ninth day, and all of us said to 
 ourselves and to each other, 'What does 
 this portend?' Was not that another bad 
 omen? And one of the tazias took fire, 
 and was burned up. Was not that another 
 bad omen ? Last of all, a great comet ap- 
 peared in the sky, the point of which was 
 turned towards Oudh, and the tail towards 
 Mecca, and the wise knew that it was for 
 the rising and falling of kingdoms. 
 
 It was the custom of the king, Wajid Aly, 
 to have two figures made during the Mohur- 
 rim — one of Yahudy, and one of Syud SaMr ; 
 and he had the faces of the figures black- 
 ened, and a chain of old shoes hung round 
 
THE MOHUERIM. 99 
 
 their necks in contempt, and two mehters^ or 
 sweepers (men of the lowest caste), stood on 
 each side with their sweeping brooms in 
 their hands instead of the usual handsome 
 attendants with chowries to brush away the 
 flies. And the king shot at these figures with 
 arrows, and struck them with a sword, and 
 exposed them to every indignity, decent and 
 indecent, and his companions did the same 
 when the king was tired ; and last of all the 
 two figures were burnt with fire, and their 
 ashes were scattered to the winds of heaven. 
 It was thus that the king displayed his zeal 
 for the faith ; but God was not pleased with 
 him, or surely he would never have lost his 
 kingdom. So said the queen my mistress 
 often, and she was wise. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 LADY FATIMA. 
 
 It was some time, perhaps three or four 
 years, before the Enghsh annexation, when 
 the queen had been annoyed and inconve- 
 nienced by exhibitions of pride and want of 
 attention on the part of some of her chief 
 attendants, that she called her female house- 
 hold together, and related to them the story 
 of Huzrut Fatima. I heard it several times 
 afterwards, and it is all fixed in my memory, 
 so that I can tell it nearly word for word : — 
 Lady Fatima was wife of Huzrut Aly, and 
 mother of Hassain and Hoossen ; and whilst 
 she and her husband Hved happily and in 
 great splendour together, a poor grass-cutter 
 and his wife lived at no great distance from 
 their palace. Now, the Lady Fatima was 
 proud, and did not wait upon and tend her 
 
LADY FATIMA. 101 
 
 husband with all that assiduity that a wife 
 ought : this was her only fault. 
 
 One day Huzrut Aly said to her, ' Beebee 
 Fatima, that poor grass-cutter's wife will 
 enter heaven before you.' ' Before me ? ' said 
 the Lady Fatima haughtily. ' How can that 
 be, when I am the wife of a prophet ? ' And 
 the saint answered, ' Nevertheless, what I say 
 is true ; for she will hold the bridle of the 
 camel on which you enter Paradise, and set 
 her foot in it before you.' ' And why should 
 that be so ? ' asked the lady. ' See her, and 
 judge for yourself,' was the saint's answer. 
 
 So the next morning the Lady Fatima went 
 herself to the grass-cutter's cottage, and 
 knocked at the door. ' Who's there ? ' asked 
 the grass-cutter's wife from within. ' It is I, 
 Huzrut Beebee Fatima,' was the lady's answer. 
 ' And what is it you require, lady ? ' asked 
 the poor woman, still from within. ' I 
 want to enter and see you and your cot- 
 tage,' said the lady. ' I have not enquired 
 my husband's wishes in this matter,' said the 
 poor woman. ' He is at his daily work : I 
 cannot open the door now ; when he returns 
 
102 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 I will ask him, and to-morrow I will tell you 
 wkat he says.' Lady Fatima returned home 
 and told Huzrut Aly all that had taken place. 
 His reply was, ' Persevere, see, and judge.' 
 
 Next morning Lady Fatima went out walk- 
 ing with her son Hassain, and called at the 
 grass-cutter's cottage again. She knocked at 
 the door ; the same question was asked by 
 the poor woman from within, ' Who's there ? ' 
 and the same answer was returned, ' It is I, 
 Huzrut Beebee Fatima.' Just then Hassain, 
 her son, said something ; and as the grass- 
 cutter's wife was coming to the door to open 
 it, she heard his voice. ' Is there anyone 
 with you. Lady Fatima?' she asked from 
 within. ' Only my son Hassain,' was the 
 answer. ' I had my husband's permission to 
 open the door for you,' said the poor woman ; 
 ' but I did not ask him anything about your 
 son. I cannot open for him also.' So the Lady 
 Fatima returned home, saying she would come 
 again next day. And when she told her hus- 
 band Huzrut Aly what had taken place, he 
 said again, ' Persevere, see, and judge.' 
 
 So the next day the Lady Fatima was walk- 
 
LADY FATIMA. 103 
 
 ing out with her two sons, Hassain and 
 Hoossen, and went to the cottage as before, 
 and the same dialogue took place ; but when 
 the poor woman saw that the Lady Fatima 
 had her two sons with her, she would not 
 open, saying that she had only permission 
 from her husband to open to the Lady Fatima 
 and her son Hassain ; but she would ask her 
 husband, on his return, if the Lady Fatima 
 chose to come again. So the Lady Fatima 
 returned home, and told her husband Huzrut 
 Aly what had taken place, and got the same 
 answer, ' Persevere, see, and judge.' 
 
 On the grass-cutter coming home in the 
 evening, his wife told him what she had 
 done, and, instead of commending her for it, 
 he exclaimed, ' miserable woman ! do 
 you want to ruin me by sending away a lady 
 such as Huzrut Beebee Fatima day by day 
 from my door ? If it is her good pleasure to 
 come again, throw open the door, whoever 
 may be with her, and admit her without an 
 instant's delay.' 
 
 So next day, when Lady Fatima and her 
 two sons came to the cottage, the poor 
 
104 PRIVATE LIFE OF AIs^ EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 woman threw open the door, and invited 
 them to enter, before the lady had time to 
 knock. Lady Fatima entered, seated herself, 
 and looked around her. She observed that 
 everjrthing in the cottage was poor; but 
 everything was tidy, neat, and clean. A 
 small j&re burned on the floor, and an iron 
 plate, or griddle, was standing by it, ready 
 to bake the thin unleavened bread used by 
 the poor, called chwpatties, and a vessel of 
 pease was also near. In another place cold 
 food and well-filtered water stood ready. 
 There were two beds ready, one with a 
 pillow and thick counterpane, the other 
 simply a framework covered with tape. A 
 rope was hanging up on the wall, and a cane 
 stood in the corner. 
 
 ' Tell me, my good woman,' said the lady, 
 ' what are all these things for ? ' ' All for 
 my husband's comfort, when he returns home 
 tired and weary,' said the woman. 'If he 
 wishes to sleep,here is his bed ready; if heonly 
 wishes to rest himself, the other bed, covered 
 with that broad tape, is ready. Warm and 
 Qold water are ready for him to wash, and, as 
 
LADY FATIMA. 105 
 
 to food, cold food is ready in one corner, and 
 he can have warm chupatties and dhall in a 
 few minutes. Behold also his hookah ready. 
 ' And what,' asked the lady, ' is the meaning 
 of this rope and cane ? ' ' These too,' said 
 the woman, ' are for my husband's comfort 
 and convenience. Should he find cause to 
 be displeased with me, the rope is ready 
 with which he can tie me up, and the cane 
 is ready with which to beat me, without the 
 trouble of searching for them ! ' 
 
 Lady Fatima said nothing in reply, but 
 thought much, and went on her way home. 
 
 That same evening Huzrut Aly returned 
 to his apartment, looking flushed and weary, 
 for the day was hot. Lady Fatima took a 
 fan up at once, and began fanning him. 
 They had been married many years, yet she 
 had never done this before, so he saw that 
 the lesson he had wished to teach had been 
 learned by her. He was very glad, so glad 
 that his heart begun to swell with gratitude 
 to God, to such an extent that his whole 
 body was inflamed, and his vest became so 
 tight it threatened to choke him at the neck. 
 
106 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 The Almiglity saw the danger that threatened 
 his friend the prophet, and, calhng the angel 
 Gabriel, said, * Go down forthwith to Huzrut 
 Aly, and say to him from me, ' The Almighty 
 wants payment of all the debt due by you.' 
 And in an instant of time the angel Gabriel 
 delivered the message, and the heart, before 
 swollen so large, became small, and the vest 
 shpped down, buttoned as it was. 
 
 From that day Huzrut Beebee Fatima 
 became the most devoted of wives, and put 
 away from her all pride, and performed her 
 duties dihgently without affectation or neglect, 
 and was beloved of God and her husband. 
 
 Such is the story of the Lady Fatima, as 
 the queen told it to us. 
 
107 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 PRITJUDICES AND SUPEESTITIONS. 
 
 Wise and good as the queen was, death was 
 a subject which she would not allow to be 
 mentioned, or even alluded to, in her 
 presence. The word death was banished 
 altogether from ordinary conversation in her 
 household, and even its equivalents, to be 
 taken away, to depart this hfe, and such hke, 
 were not used. The periphrasis by which 
 the idea was usually conveyed, was that the 
 responsibility of the child was off the parents' 
 shoulders, meaning that the child was dead ; 
 or the responsibihty of the wife off the 
 husband's shoulders, meaning that the wife 
 was dead, and so on. 
 
 The queen's father or mother, I do not 
 know which, had died whilst apparently in a 
 sound sleep, and this had made such an 
 impression upon her mind when a girl, that 
 
 
108 PEIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 she always begged her attendants never to 
 let her go into a very sound sleep, but to 
 wake her up if she seemed to sleep more 
 than ordinarily soundly. This the attendants 
 always promised to do, but never did. 
 
 Her youngest son was about ten years of 
 age when her husband, Umjid Aly Shah, 
 died, and was a great favourite both with 
 his father and mother. I remember, on one 
 occasion, a large quantity of gold mohurs had 
 been brought in by the queen's treasurer, 
 and, having been counted, were arranged in 
 Httle piles of ten each on the carpet in front 
 of her. I was but a child, and the thought 
 was in my mind that I had never seen such 
 piles of gold before in all my life. The 
 youngest son of the queen and his nurse 
 came in just then, and as he was about my 
 own age, or a little younger, I looked upon 
 him with great interest. By and by there 
 was a great disturbance. Some of the gold 
 pieces were missing, and servants were sus- 
 pected, and search was made, and all were 
 in terror of flogging to extort confession. 
 For two or three days the investigation and 
 
PEEJUDICES AND SUPERSTITIONS. 109 
 
 search about tlie missing gold went on, and 
 both were unsuccessful — nothing was found. 
 
 At length the young prince himself told 
 his mother he had taken some of the gold to 
 give to his foster-mother, and that he had 
 concealed it about his person before leaving 
 the room. As many of the servants had 
 been suspected, and so much trouble had 
 been taken to find the culprit, the queen was 
 very angry that her son had not told her 
 before. So she had him tied hand and foot, 
 after the manner of criminals, and taken 
 into the king's presence to be judged and 
 punished. 
 
 The king was at durbar when his son was 
 brought to him thus ; and on seeing the young- 
 prince, his favourite son, tied up, he was 
 very angry, and ordered him to be released 
 forthwith. He was very near punishing the 
 servants who brought him in thus ignomi- 
 niously, although they pleaded the queen's 
 orders. However, finally, he released them 
 with threats, and took the young prince and 
 fondled him, and made him presents of gold 
 and jewels. 
 
110 PEIVATE LIFE OP AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 The queen was not pleased at all this, and 
 rated the king soundly when he next came 
 to her apartment, and would not see the 
 young prince for three days, as a punish- 
 ment ; but further punishment than that 
 she did not or dared not inflict. 
 
 The queen was a behever in dreams, and 
 no wonder. Do not thousands of dreams 
 come true ? A few months after the death 
 of Umjid Aly Shah, the young prince, who 
 had been very fond of his father, woke up 
 one night crying, and said his father had 
 called him three times. And the queen 
 asked him, and the boy said, 'My father 
 came to me and called to me three times thus, 
 and beckoned : I want to go to him.' The 
 young prince slept again ; but the queen was 
 very uneasy, and lay awake till morning. 
 That morning the young prince got up, 
 apparently quite well, but towards midday 
 he sickened — cholera came on — and he was 
 dead before evening ! Yet people often say 
 there is nothing in dreams ! 
 
 It was not more than a year or so before 
 the annexation of Oudh to the British terri- 
 
PREJUDICES AND SUPERSTITIONS. Ill 
 
 tones in India, that the queen dreamt one 
 night that an old man of venerable aspect 
 had come to the king's durbar, and, taking 
 the king her son by the hand, had hfted 
 him oJBT the royal carpet, leaving him to stand 
 upon the floor beyond. As none in the 
 household could interpret this dream, the 
 soothsayers of Lucknow were collected, and, 
 after much consultation, they decided that 
 some serious injury threatened the kingdom, 
 and they showed how it was to be averted 
 by prayers, and gifts, and such like. But 
 the means they showed to avert the danger 
 failed ; and was not the annexation of Oudh 
 by the Enghsh the fulfilment of the queen's 
 dream ? Yet the impious laugh at dreams ! 
 
 It was a tradition in the palace that 
 women had been walled up, in more places 
 than one, for infidehty, and other crimes, by 
 the various kings ; and the queen had certain 
 knowledge of two or three such cases that 
 had occurred in former reigns. The queen 
 therefore, did not Hke walking about the 
 corridors or passages, after dark, and always 
 had a good hght in her own room. I have 
 
112 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 heard the queen say that more than once 
 shrieks from the built-up walls had reached 
 her ears, whether of the women themselves 
 or of their spirits she did not know ; and, so 
 far as she could make out, they called for 
 food, for water, for hfe. I was but a child, 
 and often I had to go alone at night through 
 these passages ; and I went fearfully, my 
 flesh creeping, my heart beating aloud, and 
 every hmb trembling — so much so that I 
 could hardly walk. 
 
 After her widowhood the queen never 
 occupied a state bed again, but simple couches 
 of wood with little ornament. She always 
 lay too on her right side, and her attendants 
 said it was a penance she imposed on her- 
 self, in memory of her deceased husband. 
 
 So short had been the reigns of the two or 
 three former kings of Oudh, that there was 
 a rumour in Lucknow that a snake lay 
 hidden in the throne, and that its poison soon 
 ended the sovereign's life. Hence, when the 
 queen's sonWajid Aly was crowned, he would 
 not sit upon the guddee, or cushion, as his 
 fathers had done, but simply touched the 
 
PEEJUDICES AND SUPEESTITIONS. 113 
 
 guddee seven times bowing, and then sat 
 himself apart from it. And certain it is, 
 that whilst his father and grandfather reigned 
 only three or four years each, he reigned nine 
 or ten years, and had many sons whilst -king. 
 The throne in Lucknow was said to be the 
 very one on which King "Solomon, the wisest 
 of men, had sat. It was taken to pieces by the 
 English. Although the wisest of men had 
 sat on that throne, all were not wise that sat 
 on it. Wajid Aly had many wives, and so 
 had Solomon. It is written in the Koran 
 that Solomon had many wives, and he was 
 the wisest of men, and it was God himself 
 gave him his wisdom. Mashallah ! God's will 
 be done ! 
 
114 
 
 CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 BOEN IN THE PURPLE. 
 
 On the occasion of a birth in the royal 
 harem, notice was sent to all the relatives of 
 the father in the first place. None but female 
 assistance and attendance were allowed, and 
 the skill of these female attendants was 
 proverbial. Drinks of hot milk, and food 
 consisting of rice and pease flavoured with 
 ginger and cloves, were the nourishment 
 usually given in the first instance to the 
 mother. K the infant was a son, cannon were 
 fired, and fireworks let ojQTat night with lavish 
 profusion. If a daughter, the rejoicings 
 were of a much milder and less boisterous 
 character. For boys a wet-nurse was en- 
 gaged for two years and a quarter, and for 
 girls for one year and three-quarters, the 
 mothers of the royal household never nurs- 
 
BORN IN THE PURPLE. 115 
 
 ing their own children. Besides the wet- 
 nurse, another woman was engaged whose 
 sole duty it was to look after the wet-nurse, 
 to see that she did not eat things likely to be 
 injurious to her, and that she lived a strictly 
 chaste and temperate life. This attendant 
 was expected to be with the nurse night and 
 day. 
 
 On the ninth day after the birth the mo- 
 ther was bathed and dressed in new clothes. 
 Her friends were then first permitted to call 
 upon her and offer their congratulations, and 
 it was usual for her own relatives to forward 
 gifts of large quantities of all kinds of food to 
 the palace ; the gifts of money and ornaments 
 intended for the nurse were usually thrown 
 into the bath-tub, on the occasion of the 
 newly-born infant being first bathed — the 
 father setting the example. After that first 
 bath the infant was daily rubbed with oil, 
 but was not again bathed for a whole year. 
 The mother was similarly rubbed and sham- 
 pooed with oil. Whether she were wife by 
 nikha or muta — that is, by the most formal, 
 or only by left-handed marriage — on the birth 
 
 I 2 
 
116 PEIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 of a son she took rank at once after the duly 
 betrothed and dowried wife. Her estabhsh- 
 ment was placed at once upon a more re- 
 spectable footing, and she herself became a 
 power in the state. But the giving birth to 
 a daughter did not confer these advan- 
 tages. 
 
 The mother on these occasions did not 
 leave her room for forty days, and the mother 
 of a son had then the hberty of roaming 
 about in the palace, pretty much as she 
 pleased, although her doing so previously 
 would be highly indecorous — in fact, would 
 not be permitted. The presents usually sent 
 to the mother and child by the king were a 
 cradle and playthings of silver, and ornaments 
 for the wrists and ankles. The estabhshment 
 with which a mother of a son was endowed 
 comprised an annual payment from the trea- 
 sury, larger or smaller in proportion to the 
 favour in which she was held, but never to 
 my knowledge less than 12,000 rupees a year 
 (1,200/.). Handsome jewels and clothes were 
 sent to her. She was addressed as mulika, or 
 queen. Guards, attendants, slaves, were 
 
BOKN IN THE PURPLE. 117 
 
 appointed for her, and she became at once the 
 mistress of a household. 
 
 The name of the infant was usually- 
 chosen from the Koran, which was opened 
 by the father or the mooUah, as chance or 
 fate decided, and the first word, or the first 
 proper name, decided the matter. The 
 moollah was often bribed to give a particular 
 name, and then he made it appear that fate had 
 decided it. Ill luck that, both for parent and 
 child. Such a boy but too often sits heavily 
 on the head of his father. Of course, there 
 are good and bad moollahs, as there are 
 good and bad men of all classes ; but they 
 ought to be the best of all men. 
 
 If the divination by opening the Koran 
 fortuitously makes it appear that the son will 
 be an injury to the father, the father is then 
 forbidden to look upon it for one, two, or 
 three months, as the case may be, to obviate 
 the evil omen. The first bath of the mother 
 is regulated as to the hour, and sometimes 
 as to the day, by the divination from the 
 Koran. 
 
 The apartment in which the birth has 
 
118 PEIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN" QUEEN". 
 
 taken place is held to be unclean for forty 
 days. On the fortieth day it is thoroughly 
 cleaned out, a chapter of the Koran read, 
 and the woman is then permitted to join, 
 for the first time since her confinement, in 
 rehgious exercises. 
 
 The second son of the queen my mistress, 
 usually called the general, who accompanied 
 her to England and died there, was very 
 dutiful to the queen, and both of them were 
 fond of each other. One of his wives was 
 the daughter of the vizier or prime minister, 
 and to this wife he was not at all attached. 
 In fact she seemed to be an object of aversion 
 to him. The queen's only daughter was also 
 married to the vizier's eldest son, and he re- 
 tahatedthe general's neglect of his sister upon 
 his own wife, who was the general's sister. 
 All this was the source of great trouble in 
 the palace, and of much anxiety to the queen 
 my mistress. Constant mediations were neces- 
 sary on both sides, and it was not without 
 the most earnest appeals on the queen's part 
 that either of these husbands could be got to 
 visit or live with these despised wives. 
 
BORN IN THE PURPLE. 119 
 
 On one occasion, some five or six years 
 before annexation, the general, in travelling, 
 accidentally saw the two daughters of a poor 
 Eajpoot (a Hindu). They were twelve and 
 fourteen years of age respectively, and the 
 general fell in love with them both. The 
 queen saw them, and although they were 
 Hindus, yet for the love she bore her son 
 she consented to his marrying one of them. 
 He took them both and married them. In 
 course of time the eldest gave birth to a very 
 beautiful boy, now with the ex-king at Cal- 
 cutta, one of the handsomest children ever 
 born in the palace. From the time that 
 these two sisters had become the wives of 
 the general, they had been dressed and edu- 
 cated as Mohammedans — the dress consisting 
 of wide pyjamas^ or drawers, each leg three 
 four yards wide, an inner close-fitting vest, 
 and a muslin sheet or veil, thrown over the 
 head, and voluminous enough to envelope 
 the entire figure if necessary. In adopting 
 this dress, and in Hstening to and repeating 
 the prayers from the Koran, the two sisters 
 were regarded as having thrown away their 
 
120 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 pagan faith, Hinduism, and embraced the 
 faith of the true behevers. 
 
 In the midst of the joy at the birth of this 
 son in the general's palace, the young mother 
 began to long for a visit from her own 
 mother, a poor Eajpoot woman. The gene- 
 ral sent rich presents to the poor woman, 
 and, having had her clothed in fine raiment, 
 permitted her to come and visit her daughter. 
 But the daughter was not content with this. 
 The spirit of obstinacy was in her, and she 
 insisted on her mother stopping with her 
 altogether. This the general, as a good Mus- 
 sulman, could not and would not permit. 
 The young mother had set her heart upon 
 this and upon nothing else. No rich presents 
 nor jewels and ornaments, no, nor her own 
 lovely son, could console her. She longed 
 and pined and fretted herself to death. She 
 died on the ninth day, and the general was 
 inconsolable. 
 
 The queen loved her son the general, and 
 was grieved at his distress. She sent through 
 Lucknow and the provinces to try and get 
 another beauty, Mussulman or Hindoo, equal 
 
BORN IN THE PURPLE. 121 
 
 to her he had lost. Many were brought, 
 and the queen did her best to set off their 
 attractions, and divert her son's mind from its 
 sorrow, but all in vain. He would not be 
 comforted. 
 
 Wearied at length with his obstinate grief, 
 she spoke thus to him, one day that I was 
 preparing the hookah for her, and he had 
 come on a visit : ' What am I to do for you, 
 unreasonable man? Will nothing console 
 you ? ' And he answered, ' If you could call 
 her back from the tomb; that would console 
 me ; but you cannot.' ' Then why did you let 
 her pine and die ? ' asked the queen. ' When 
 she was alive, was she not all your own? 
 Why not have allowed her mother to hve 
 with her ? ' ' Did I not let her mother visit 
 her ? ' he asked, ' Could I do more ? Am I 
 not a Mussulman ? ' 
 
 Thus they spoke, after that, many times. 
 However, he consoled himself, a year or so 
 after, with another wife, and was happy. 
 
 I saw the son of that Eajpoot girl in Luck- 
 now, a prisoner in the hands of the Enghsh 
 after the mutiny. The English officer was 
 
122 PRIVATE LIFE OP AN EASTERN QUEEN.' 
 
 kind, and did not want to hurt the boy, and 
 sent him to the daughter of the vizier, the 
 general's wife, that wife whom he had 
 neglected so much. She would not receive 
 the youth, but returned him to the English 
 officer, reviling the boy as half a Hindu and 
 half a Christian, and saying that she had 
 nothing to do with him, and could not let 
 a child like that — and she called him an 
 opprobrious name — live with her. After 
 some delay and much correspondence, the 
 boy was finally sent down to Calcutta, and is 
 now with the ex-king, as I have said. 
 
 On the occasion of a birth in the palace, 
 particular care was taken to prevent evil 
 spirits doing any harm. For six days after 
 the infant's birth a fire and a fight were kept 
 in the room constantly. The evil spirits are 
 driven away by fires and by lights — are they 
 not spirits of darkness, and of the Evil One ? 
 But if human eyes are kept fixed on the httle 
 one, the evil spirits have no power over it. 
 Hence a mother should never turn her back 
 upon her child for six days at least. 
 
 After I left the palace, during the time of 
 
BORN IN THE PURPLE. 123 
 
 the wars, I was visiting a poor friend. A 
 boy had just been born to her, and she had 
 no proper assistance, and was wearied watch- 
 ing her httle one, for fear of the spirits. So 
 r took it from her, and told her to sleep, and 
 she did so. I had travelled a good deal that 
 day, and my eyes were heavy. However, 
 determined to watch the little one, I sat on a 
 low stool before a small fire, with my back 
 to the wall, and the infant in my lap. After 
 midnight, in spite of myself, I dozed, and, 
 after a time, I heard a rushing footstep beat- 
 ing hard on the earthen floor, and I roused 
 myself, and found the infant had been taken 
 from my lap by the evil spirit, and was Ipng 
 on the floor quite dead. The spirits take 
 the life only, not the body. The child's neck 
 was broken in the struggle. And you ask 
 how I know it was an evil spirit did it. 
 How do I know that I am alive now, and 
 was ahve then ? Would God or a good 
 spirit do it? No ; the child could not have 
 fallen from my lap, and broken its neck upon 
 the hard unmatted ground. Besides, did I 
 not hear the rushing footstep beating hard 
 
124 PEIYATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 upon the earthen floor? full of unbelief! 
 — ^forgive me, my lord, but we in Oudh know 
 more of these evil spirits, and what they can 
 do, than you sahibs from England appear to 
 know. Did I not hear the footstep ? Why 
 then talk of falling from my arms ? Wah ! 
 wah ! but the world is as full of unbehef as 
 the sun is of light. But God is good and 
 great, and the evil spirits are very wicked. 
 
125 
 
 CHAPTEE XIL 
 
 HOLY MATEIMONY. 
 
 The marriages in the court were of two 
 kinds — niklia and muta. The former was 
 the complete and perfect ceremony between 
 equals ; the latter usually between a superior 
 and inferior, and not considered so binding 
 as the nikha. In the royal family the boys 
 were usually betrothed at the age of from ten 
 to sixteen years. It was unusual to find a 
 boy betrothed under ten years of age, and it 
 would not have been easy to find a boy of 
 sixteen who was not betrothed. The girls 
 were usually betrothed when two years 
 younger than the boys. 
 
 Presents of flowers and fruit usually passed 
 between the betrothed until the time of 
 marriage ; and for a month before marriage 
 the bride was fed exclusively upon milk, un- 
 
126 PEIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 leavened bread, and sweetmeats. Two days 
 before the marriage both bride and bride- 
 groom rubbed mayndee, a red dye, on the 
 palms of their hands and the soles of their feet, 
 ■ and the way in which the mayndee adhered 
 was considered emblematical of the lasting 
 character of the affection between the two, 
 and the happiness of the match. It was also 
 usual for the bridegroom to send a suit of 
 yellow clothing to the bride, as emblematical 
 of love. 
 
 In the royal household all matters apper- 
 taining to dowry and such like were settled 
 long before the marriage ceremony took 
 place. But in the households of poorer 
 Mussulmans it is not at aU unusual for violent 
 altercations on this subject to break out 
 even when the marriage procession is being 
 formed. 
 
 The marriage procession was usually a time 
 of great mirth and festivity at court. Ele- 
 phants with silver howdahs, splendid palan- 
 quins, and highly ornamented chairs of state 
 borne by servants in liveries of scarlet and 
 gold lace, bands of music, richly caparisoned 
 
HOLY MATRIMONY. 127 
 
 horses, bearers of silver sticks (called choh- 
 dars) and other bearers richly dressed, with 
 trays of presents and sweetmeats of all kinds — 
 all these, and crowds of thousands of citizens, 
 formed a scene, when brilliantly Ht up by 
 torchlight, hke that of the court of Indra and 
 the Palace of the Peris. 
 
 This marriage procession, called the har- 
 rath, goes at night to conduct the bride to 
 the house of the bridegroom. It usually 
 started from the palace about eight or nine 
 o'clock, and concluded about midnight. 
 However near the houses might be to each 
 other, the time consumed was the same, the 
 procession going by a circuit when the houses 
 were near, to lengthen out the ceremony. So 
 with cannons firing, and fireworks blazing 
 away, and torches flashing, so that night was 
 turned into day, it stood before the door, 
 awaiting the bride, whom the bridegroom 
 had not yet seen. Nor did he see her till 
 the ceremony was concluded. 
 
 The marriage ceremony — the nikha — ^is 
 almost entirely rehgious. The parents answer 
 for the girl, and the bridegroom engages to 
 
128 PRIVATE LIFE OP AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 take her, to love her, to cherish her for ever, 
 whether she be lovely and young, or old and 
 bhnd and decrepit ; whether black and' ugly, 
 or fair and handsome. The bridegroom gives 
 the nose-ring to the bride as the sign of 
 marriage, but in the court a ring for the 
 finger and a garland for the head were 
 usually added. 
 
 At the close of the rehgious ceremony a 
 mushn veil was thrown over the heads of 
 both, and a muTor laid between them, in 
 which the bridegroom, for the first time, saw 
 the face of his bride. It was not difficult to 
 judge, from the countenance of the youth 
 when the veil was removed, whether he was 
 pleased or disappointed. The bride was 
 usually conducted to her own home again, 
 that is, to the house of her father and mother, 
 the following day, and lived with them a 
 month or so, the bridegroom visiting her oc- 
 casionally or regularly every day, remaining 
 during the night and departing in the morn- 
 ing, according to his pleasure. From the de- 
 votion he exhibited during this first month, 
 or from his indifierence, the future well-being 
 
HOLT MATRIMONY. 129 
 
 or unhappiness of tlie bride miglit be safely 
 augured. 
 
 At the end of this month or so of proba- 
 tion the bride went finally to her husband's 
 house to take her place in it as his wife. But 
 it was not till after the birth of a son that 
 she ruled as supreme in the household, and 
 obtained full hberty of action. Till the birth 
 of a son, for instance, she was not permitted 
 to sit, converse, or eat with her husband, ex- 
 cept in the privacy of her own apartment, if 
 he chose to come there for that purpose. But 
 the mother of a son, married by nikha, was 
 female head of the household, and had in it 
 almost absolute power. She could then visit 
 her husband in his usual sitting-room, could 
 join him at meals, and, in fact, act more like 
 a wife according to the ideas of EngHsh 
 sahibs. 
 
 One of the king's sons, who was after- 
 wards killed in the streets of Lucknow during 
 the mutiny, was little better than a fool, and 
 offended his father so much by his wild silly 
 behaviour, that he was usually under confine- 
 ment. He was betrothed and married, 
 K 
 
130 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 however, according to custom, and the girl 
 chosen for him was a nice quiet modest 
 well-looking bride, the daughter of one of 
 the inferior officers of the court. Everything 
 went on as usual until the muslin sheet was 
 thrown over them, and the mirror placed for 
 him to see her face. When this was done, 
 the band playing without in the courtyard, 
 all the assembled company was startled by a 
 piercing shriek from the bride, who fell down 
 insensible, having fainted from pain and 
 terror. The madman had torn her nose- 
 ring oflf, and bit her severely, whilst they 
 were concealed from view by the sheet. She 
 was rescued by her friends, was happily not 
 compelled to hve with him, but Hved and 
 died a virgin widow. 
 
 In the inferior left-handed muta marriages 
 so frequently contracted by the members of 
 the royal family, the bridegroom did not 
 appear in person. His sword and belt, or his 
 head-dress, or even some ornament of his 
 person, represented him on the occasion. The 
 usual form of words was gone through, but 
 no one regarded the ceremony as very bind- 
 
HOLY MATEIMONY. 131 
 
 ing or sacred. Binding it was on the part of 
 the woman, who was hable to suffer death if 
 false to her duty ; but such marriages were 
 easily dissolved by the king or his male rela- 
 tions, when they felt so disposed. On the 
 birth of a son the muta wife usually, but not 
 always, became nikha, and the nikha cere- 
 mony was gone through between her and 
 her lord. This occurred several times in 
 the reign of the ex-king Wajid Aly. 
 
 One of the muta wives of the king, who 
 had been betrothed to a fellow villager, a 
 playmate of hers, in infancy, escaped once in 
 disguise from the palace. Direful was the 
 commotion in consequence. Guards and 
 attendants were flogged, and the shrieks re- 
 sounded through the courtyards and corridors. 
 Messengers were despatched in various direc- 
 tions to bring back the fugitive. She was 
 found and brought back on the third day. I 
 saw her after that for the first time. She had 
 large black eyes, an oval face, and a fair 
 complexion. Her features were regular, but 
 wanted expression — all except the eyes, which 
 seemed to look through one, so piercing and 
 
 K 2 
 
132 PEIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 lustrous were they, swimming as if in a sea of 
 passion. 
 
 Instead of punishing her terribly, as we all 
 expected he would, the king seemed to pay 
 her more attention than usual on her return ; 
 indeed so much so, that one day the queen 
 my mistress remonstrated with him. ' She is 
 but a villager,' said the queen : ' instead of 
 indulgence, she deserves punishment ; and you 
 grant her all her desires.' ' I grant her none 
 of her desires,' was the king's reply ; ' she 
 will not express a wish for anything. I can- 
 not make her out. Her eyes are full of fire, 
 and all the rest is as a marble statue. She 
 interests me. I offer her jewels and orna- 
 ments ; she says she does not want them. I 
 get dancing girls for her amusement ; she 
 looks on and smiles not. A villager ! Yes, 
 she is a villager. But, by the beard of the 
 Prophet, she knows how to act the queen ! ' 
 
 The queen my mistress said no more. 
 When the king her son swore by the beard 
 of the Prophet she was not pleased, for she 
 was pious, and liked not profane oaths. 
 
 A month rolled on, and still this muta 
 
HOLY MATEIMONY. 133 
 
 wife, the villager, was made mucli of. She 
 was not hked. She had made no friends in 
 the court, for she spoke scarcely at all. At the 
 end of about a month after the conversation 
 I have related, she disappeared altogether — 
 but this time it was the king's vengeance 
 caused her disappearance, not her own flight. 
 I forget her name, and cannot tell what her 
 fate was, but I am sure it was dreadful. The 
 king had done his best to please and amuse 
 her, and she would not be pleased or amused. 
 I heard too that she openly told him she 
 loved the village youth to whom she had 
 been betrothed, and did not love him the 
 king ! If so, w^hat could she expect ? Kings 
 will not be treated in that way by village 
 girls. The young man to whom she had 
 been betrothed suffered with her. I do not 
 know what his fault was. Perhaps he had 
 enticed her to leave the palace when she 
 escaped disguised. I do not know. I only 
 know that his mother came to the queen 
 to complain of the loss of her son, and for 
 nearly a month sat at the gate waihng, with 
 ashes on her head, and demanding justice 
 
134 PEIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERI^ QUEEN". 
 
 and mercy. She gave a great deal of trouble, 
 poor thing! I could not help pitying her. 
 Whether the queen asked the king her son 
 anything about the young man, I do not 
 know. She did not talk of the matter before 
 me. Perhaps she knew all about the case 
 beforehand. Whatever was the true expla- 
 nation, all I know about it is this, that she 
 ordered money to be given to the poor 
 woman, and that she should be sent back to 
 her village. Yes ! she was a good and kind 
 queen. If there was any fault in this affair, 
 it was not hers, but the king's. Who can 
 resist their fate ? 
 
135 
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 THE ANGEL OF DEATH. 
 
 As the body becomes unclean the moment 
 life departs, the relatives and friends hasten 
 to leave the apartment, when assured that 
 the angel of death has taken possession of it. 
 Those employed at court to wash the body 
 were Syuds, and took the corpse into a bath- 
 room for that purpose, women ministering to 
 women, and men to men. Some ornament — 
 a ring on the finger, or a wristlet on the arm 
 — was usually left, that the deceased might 
 not enter empty-handed into Paradise. 
 
 A coffin was used to carry the corpse to 
 the grave, but was not buried with it. The 
 body was rolled in a new piece of white 
 cloth, and laid in the coffin, and when the 
 fimeral procession took place, a pall or 
 canopy of rich cloth, supported on the ends 
 
136 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 of four poles, was carried by four mourners 
 over the coffin. It is not well that heaven 
 should look upon a bare coffin. Arrived at 
 the grave, the body was taken from the 
 coffin, and the mooUah read the Koran, and 
 a man went into the grave, and placed two 
 sticks across (in the form of a St. Andrew's 
 cross), leaning on the head of the grave, 
 against which the deceased might rest, when 
 sitting up to be examined by the angels 
 Monker and Nikel, on the third day. 
 
 Held by the head and the feet, the body 
 was then placed in the grave, and boards so 
 arranged at some distance above it as to pre- 
 vent the earth falling upon the corpse. The 
 funeral party then retired forty paces for 
 some minutes, and returned and looked in, 
 to see that no change had taken place, before 
 filling up the grave. Finally, a whisper for 
 his eternal salvation was breathed into the 
 ear of the corpse ; the nearest of kin threw 
 in the first clod of earth, and the grave was 
 filled up. 
 
 Fires were then lit at the foot and at the 
 head of the grave, to keep off evil spirits, 
 
THE ANGEL OP DEATH. 137 
 
 for do not the spirits of darkness avoid the 
 light ? The Koran was daily read, and the 
 relatives returned daily at day-dawn to pray. 
 On the morning of the third day, the cere- 
 mony called thujah was performed; the 
 friends took bread and cakes, flour and oil 
 and cardamums, and, having kindled a fire, 
 threw sweetmeats and flour and portions of 
 bread into the flames, in the name of the 
 deceased. Then, dipping their thumbs and 
 little fingers into the oil, they touched their 
 tongues and ears with it, still mentioning the 
 name of the deceased. Lastly, the provisions 
 were dropped bit by bit into the flames, the 
 name being repeated as each morsel was 
 thrown in. The thujah performed, the re- 
 latives went to the grave, and a mooUah, or 
 the nearest of kin, called out aloud to the 
 deceased, ' How is it with you in the other 
 world ? Have you been well received ? ' The 
 sounds first heard after asking these ques- 
 tions were taken as the answer. Sounds of 
 mirth or joy or lightness of heart or singing 
 of birds indicating happiness, and sounds of 
 woe indicating misery. 
 
138 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 A jar of water, and a cake or two of un- 
 leavened bread, were placed every morning 
 by the grave for forty days, and prayers 
 were read daily for the same length of time, 
 and the mourning continued as long, in ordi- 
 nary cases ; but there were many exceptions 
 to this rule. The queen my mistress had 
 lights, and the Koran read, at the grave of 
 her husband, Umjid Aly Shah, for many 
 months. 
 
 During this time of mourning, the hair is 
 not oiled, nor is the beard or the head 
 shaven, nor are the clothes washed, nor is 
 soormah (black dye) used to adorn the eyes, 
 nor is pawn eaten. And the widow mourns, 
 with covered face, in white clothing, and 
 wears no ornaments. Often has the queen 
 said, if widows did their duty they would not 
 marry again, but would mourn all their Hves 
 for their lords. But surely the world is wicked 
 now, and the widow hastens to remarry, 
 and her friends help her in this naughtiness ! 
 
 The death of the king was in this wise — 
 When the king, Umjid Aly Shah, felt his 
 end approaching, he ordered the council- 
 
THE ANGEL OF DEATH. 139 
 
 chamber to be prepared, and fresh carpets to 
 be spread, and new cushions ; and he had his 
 beard trimmed, and put on new and splendid 
 clothing, and, having lain down in the 
 council-chamber, he sent for the queen. 
 There they both wept, and he spoke much 
 to her in whispers. The boil or ulcer on 
 his shoulder at that time was as large as a 
 saucer, and the flesh all eaten away, it was 
 said, from some poisonous ointment given by 
 the physician. How can I tell if the report 
 was true? Such was the rumour in the 
 palace, and of course the physician would 
 not have dared to do so of himself. He 
 must have been bribed to it. 
 
 When the king and the queen were weep- 
 ing, then all the attendants wept ; and I was 
 but a girl, yet I remember how sad a sight 
 it was. I was in attendance on the queen at 
 this time, and was near the door, having fol- 
 lowed her with other servants. And I was 
 told the king said to the queen, ' Beware of 
 putting Wajid Aly on the throne ; if you do, 
 all the family will perish, and your heart will 
 be broken.' But what could the queen do ? 
 
140 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 The vizier and the English resident did as 
 they pleased, and Wajid Aly was made 
 king. 
 
 After much whispering talk, he said he 
 would sleep, and the queen laid down his 
 head gently, and covered it. The attendants, 
 suspecting he was dead, got her away with 
 great difficulty, and she thought he was still 
 sleeping ; but he was dead. He died, like a 
 king, in his royal robes, on his throne, in his 
 council-chamber. 
 
 And then the news went to the English 
 resident, and the followers of Wajid Aly, the 
 heir-apparent, hailed him as king, and the 
 voice of waihng was drowned in the shouts 
 of gladness ; and the timbrel, the sytar, and 
 the drum, were played and beaten ; and the 
 new king put on royal robes, and his mother, 
 the queen, was summoned to go to the 
 emanbarrah (the Moslem cathedral), with 
 the vizier and the Enghsh resident, that 
 he might be crowned at once. So the body 
 of the dead king, Umjid Aly Shah, was 
 left to servants alone. All was joy and 
 commotion, and cannons firing, and bands 
 
THE AIS^GEL OF DEATH. 141 
 
 playing without, whilst the servants were 
 preparing for the burial of the dead within. 
 
 The queen was detained long at the eman- 
 barrah, nor was she allowed to return till the 
 coronation was over, and all the court lords 
 had taken the oaths of allegiance. It was 
 past midnight before all this was over and she 
 got back, and the king, Umjid Aly Shah, 
 had died early in the day, before noon. Why 
 his funeral was hurried over I do not know. 
 Probably the new king had given orders to 
 that effect. But, shortly after it was dark, 
 the corpse was carried out. Pall-bearers, 
 and the grave, and all were ready. So, before 
 the queen returned from the coronation, the 
 funeral was over. 
 
 Many were the whispers of foul play in 
 the palace, and some that are older than I 
 am, and were fully grown at the time, say 
 that there is no doubt there was foul play. 
 But what do I know ? I was but a child. 
 
 I remember that, some time after, the 
 queen my mistress reproved her son for hav- 
 ing his own image stamped on the coinage of 
 his father, after having had his father's image 
 
142 PEIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 defaced. The queen said, ' Have a new 
 coinage, with your own image and super- 
 scription, made ; but deface not the image of 
 your father. How shall that son obtain the 
 favour of heaven who mars his father's work ? ' 
 
 There is no doubt that women were put 
 to death in the palace for infidehty to their 
 lords, and why should they not? But I 
 never saw any of them put to death. They 
 were sometimes flogged, too, for minor 
 offences, and the floggings in the palace were 
 terribly severe. That several had been 
 walled up in the palace, buried alive, there 
 can be no doubt. The queen often spoke of 
 them, and after the death of her husband she 
 would not go about at night in consequence. 
 But I believe the commonest death was be- 
 heading, or being shot by the female guards of 
 the palace. I do not believe that any women 
 were walled up or buried ahve during my 
 time in the palace. The queen my mistress 
 would not have allowed it. Her influence 
 in the state was very great, and the king her 
 son always consulted her in political matters. 
 
 As to the way in which the women were 
 
THE ANGEL OF DEATH. 143 
 
 walled up, I have already said I never saw 
 it, but I have heard the queen talk of it. 
 The arms and the feet of the victim were 
 tied, and a string united the two. This 
 string was attached to a bolt or iron ring, 
 prepared for the purpose in the wall, and 
 another string was passed round the waist, 
 and attached to the same bolt or ring behind. 
 The victim thus stood up, with her back to 
 the waU, usually in a corner or recess, her 
 head being uncovered. Masons attached to 
 the palace, or eunuchs who had learned the 
 art of masonry, then commenced to build a 
 wall from the floor upwards — a stout, sub- 
 stantial wall, to shut up the victim in her 
 tomb aHve ; cutting off a corner, or merely 
 fiUing up a recess thereby, so that no injury 
 was done to the room. It must have been 
 terrible to the victim as the bricks rose 
 higher and higher — to her waist, her breast, 
 her eyes — till all hght was shut out, and with 
 it all hope. God is great ; and may God and 
 the Prophet preserve us from sin ! 
 
144 
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 AMUSEMENTS AT COURT. 
 
 The queen cared little for amusement after 
 tlie death of her husband Umjid Aly Shah. 
 She would sit for hours at night poring over 
 the Koran. The story-tellers' tales were her 
 chief pleasure. 
 
 But Wajid Aly her son, the ex-king, was 
 very fond of games and amusements of all 
 kinds, and of music and singing and dancing. 
 Even during the lifetime of his father, Wajid 
 Aly would often dress as a female, and amuse 
 the ladies of the harem by dancing as a 
 woman. But this was done secretly at that 
 time, he knew his father would not ap- 
 prove of it. When he became king, however, 
 of course he did exactly as he pleased. He 
 wrote much poetry, chiefly love songs, in very 
 choice Persian and Urdu, and filled up all 
 
AMUSEMENTS AT COURT. 145 
 
 his leisure hours with music and dancing, 
 greatly to the disgust of the queen his 
 mother. 
 
 In one of the months of the cold weather 
 annually he had a play acted in his house- 
 hold, in which he and the ladies of the court 
 took part, and which I saw several times. 
 This play represented the abduction of a very 
 beautiful girl, called Ghyzalah, by an evil 
 monster (one of the genii of Arabic tales), and 
 her subsequent restoration by Eajah Indra. 
 
 One of the king's wives was annually cho- 
 sen to represent Ghyzalah, and, as she was 
 very beautiful, the honour of representing 
 her was eagerly sought in the harem ; others 
 were dressed as peris, with silver wings. 
 Another represented Eajah Indra (the king 
 of the peris, or fairies of Hindu mythology). 
 Others were dressed up as evil genii and 
 their attendants, with black ornaments and 
 black vdngs and blackened faces. None 
 wished to act these last parts, but at the 
 expression of the king's wishes none could 
 refuse. 
 
 The play was acted in the silver bara- 
 
 L 
 
146 PRIVATE LIFE OF AX EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 dhurry of the Kaiser Bagh palace in Lucknow, 
 which was divided for the purpose into three 
 compartments. One of these compartments 
 was richly decorated and fitted up as Eajah 
 Indra's court, the pillars being covered with 
 silver paper, and the richest ornaments lav- 
 ished on the ceihng and walls, whilst at night 
 it was a blaze of hght with chandehers and 
 mirrors. In the centre was Indra's throne, 
 and there the lady representing him sat in 
 state in the richest apparel, attended by 
 crowds of peris. It was a beautiful sight. 
 Whilst all this was going on within, fountains 
 without were playing scented waters, and the 
 richest and choicest flowers were in the gar- 
 den near. The seats of the garden were 
 gilded or silvered over, so as to shine amid 
 the flowers and fountains ; in the daytime 
 the sun's rays Ht up the whole, and in the 
 night thousands of lamps. The play lasted 
 ten days, and for ten days and nights this 
 gorgeous scene continued. 
 
 In another compartment a room was fitted 
 up as a royal bedroom, and, on the first day 
 of the play, Ghyzalah, beautiful as a houri. 
 
AMUSEMENTS AT COURT. 147 
 
 was seen lying on a rich couch, as if asleep, 
 beside the king, who represented her husband. 
 They lay so half the day, and all the house- 
 hold crowded to see. Wah ! wah ! but it 
 was a sight worth seeing — the golden bed- 
 stead, and the rich counterpane, and the 
 magnificent carpet, and the golden furniture, 
 and the beautiful Ghyzalah, her delicate 
 limbs in gauze or mushn edged with golden 
 tissue, and her black hair shining with gems 
 — altogether most lovely. Beside her lay the 
 king, fat and burly, but in gorgeous apparel. 
 At length the king leaves the couch, and 
 the black attendants of the evil genius carry 
 off both the couch and Ghyzalah, and hide 
 the lady. 
 
 As soon as the king, who acts the husband 
 of Ghyzalah, becomes aware of the loss, he 
 sets out as a fakir or jogee to seek her. 
 Almost naked, with his body painted, and 
 only a cloth round his loins, a staff in his 
 hand, and a wallet by his side, he goes all 
 over the palace, avoiding only the court of 
 Indra in the baradhurry, shouting out, 'Hay 
 Ghyzalah ! hay Ghyzalah ! ' His wife Khash 
 
 L 2 
 
148 PEIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 Mehal, in the dress of sadness, of a light 
 brown colour, accompanied him, and all the 
 household not engaged in the play wore 
 garments of the same colour for two days. 
 
 The queen my mistress, at first refused to 
 wear this dress of sadness herself, or to sup- 
 ply her household with it, but after a couple 
 of years the king urged her so earnestly that 
 she consented, protesting at the same time 
 against the folly of the whole afiair. 
 
 Through the gardens, and along the corri- 
 dors, and from room to room, went the king, 
 as a fakir, looking for Ghyzalah, and shout- 
 ing ' Hay Ghyzalah ! hay Ghyzalah!' attended 
 by Khash Mehal in the dress of sadness, and 
 by other women. 
 
 All Lucknow was obhged to dress in gar- 
 ments of the prescribed colour, a hght brown, 
 during this search, and I believe an edict was 
 issued, that anyone appearing in clothes of 
 another colour should be imprisoned. 
 
 In the mean time Ghyzalah had been 
 taken to the court of Eajah Indra, in the 
 baradhurry. She was received there with 
 great warmth by Eajah Indra, who^ wanted 
 
A]^IUSEMENTS AT COURT. 149 
 
 her to become one of his peris, and a good 
 deal of the fun of the piece consisted in the 
 love shown by Eajah Indra to Ghyzalah — 
 everyone being aware that this Eajah Indra 
 was not a man at all, but only a woman 
 dressed up. Boppery bop ! but it was a 
 glorious sight ! 
 
 At length, when the fakir, wearied and 
 dispirited with his fruitless search, has been 
 supposed to have visited all the world, aiid to 
 have searched every kingdom, for the lost 
 Ghyzalah, one of the attendants of the evil 
 genii, relenting on seeing the devotion of her 
 husband, comes to him, and, having extorted 
 many promises, informs him where the lost 
 fair one is. 
 
 Bounding with joy, the fakir and his train 
 visit the court of Indra, and they behold the 
 beautiful Ghyzalah, on a seat beside the sup- 
 posed god, and being fondled by him. Then 
 begins a long colloquy, in which at length 
 Indra promises to restore Ghyzalah, if her 
 husband will prove his worth in various ways 
 — as a warrior, as a hunter, as a lover, as a 
 musician, and as a dancer. 
 
150 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 Marvellous was the sight when the fakir 
 issued forth next day as a warrior, in shining 
 armour, to prove his mihtary prowess. He 
 vanquishes one after another of the black 
 attendants of the evil genii, and all the court 
 of Indra applauds, and attend him daintily to 
 his couch, to divest him of his beautiful 
 armour. As a hunter, as a lover, as a musi- 
 cian, as a dancer, he is equally successful ; 
 and, amidst the loud plaudits of the entire 
 assembly, he receives back his bride, the beau- 
 tiful Ghyzalah, and conducts her to the royal 
 chamber from which she was first stolen away. 
 
 The same scene with which the play opens, 
 concludes it. 
 
 It was the custom of the king, however, on 
 the tenth day, to dance in the baradhurry 
 for the entertainment of the multitude, and 
 he insisted upon the queen, and Khash Mehal, 
 and other leading ladies of court, giving him 
 presents in money on the termination of the 
 entertainment. On one occasion I remember 
 the queen my mistress gave him a donation 
 of 3,000 rupees (300/.), with which he was 
 well pleased. 
 
AMUSEMENTS AT COUET. 151 
 
 Another amusement of the court, in which 
 the king took great interest, was a kind of 
 play between him and the king of the peris 
 (amil-i-jinnut). Who this king of the peris 
 was, or where he came from, I never could 
 make out, but he certainly did wonderful 
 things, and people consulted him about sick- 
 ness, and about troubles and misfortunes, 
 and got wonderful answers and great relief. 
 Wah ! wah ! but it was marvellous. 
 
 Several of the singers and natch-girls were 
 dressed up as peris, and attended their king 
 when the play took place. They would sur- 
 round the throne of their king, who acted his 
 part with great dignity ; and, after we had 
 all seen the king and his throne, the door 
 would be shut, and the peris remained with- 
 in with him whilst we were excluded. Then 
 our king came from his own apartments, in 
 his royal robes. He was a fine stout man, 
 not more than thirty years of age, but he 
 looked much older ; and his attendants 
 knocked at the door, and after some talk it 
 was opened, and behold ! the king of the peris 
 and his throne were both gone, and were 
 
152 PEIVATE LIFE OP AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 nowliere to be seen, whilst all the rest re- 
 mained as it was in the room ! No, there was 
 no door by which he could have got out. 
 There was only one door, and near that we 
 were all gathered. He could not have got out 
 that way without our seeing him. And the 
 windows were very small and high up — too 
 small for a man to get out. Nor was there 
 any hole in the floor, all was soHd masonry. 
 No, there are many things too wonderful to 
 be explained, and this is one of them. There 
 are spirits good and bad, and some men can 
 get their help to do wonderful things. 
 
 Then our king entered, and a rich carpet 
 and cushion were brought for him, and a 
 pillow against which to lean, just as in the 
 durbar ; and he sat there, and a voice from 
 the air gave him the salutation, 'Salaam 
 aleikum ! ' (peace be with you), and the king 
 answered. It was the king of the peris 
 gave the salutation, but he was invisible, and 
 his voice appeared to come from overhead. 
 God is great, and with the help of spirits 
 wonderful things can be done. No, it was 
 not any of the peris standing about that 
 
AMUSEMENTS AT COURT. 153 
 
 gave the salutation. It was the voice of a 
 man, that man whom we had seen sitting on 
 the throne, and now man and throne were 
 both invisible. 
 
 And after much dancing and singing of 
 the peris before the king, our king, there was 
 again a colloquy between our king and the 
 invisible ; and the king of the peris promised 
 to come down to his brother, our king, and 
 to sit and converse with him. 
 
 So the door was again shut. Bismillah! 
 but it was a wonderful thing and an inexpli- 
 cable. When we were admitted again, the 
 king of the peris was there upon his throne, 
 just as he had been before, talking to our 
 king Wajid Aly. Where could he have come 
 from but from the air, in which he had been 
 invisible ? Do I tell lies ? Did I alone see 
 it ? Did not hundreds witness it as well as 
 I ? If I saw it not v^ith these eyes, may my 
 Hfe and death be both unfortunate. 
 
 A general dance, with music and singing, 
 in which our king took part, and the king of 
 the peris, loudly applauded him, concluded 
 the entertainment. 
 
154 
 
 CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 THE queen's favourite STORY. 
 
 Before beginning a story, the story-teller 
 always repeated the following lines : — 
 
 Sleeps all tlie world — 
 Waking is God alone — 
 This tale is not so false, 
 Nor are its words so sweet- 
 Eyes of mine saw it not, 
 From hearsay I repeat it. 
 Of him who hath composed it, 
 False or true, the meed be his. 
 
 And of all the stories the queen heard, the 
 following was the one she most liked, and 
 which she had most frequently repeated to 
 her : — 
 
 There was a king who was becoming old 
 without having had any son. Indeed he had 
 no children ; his wife was barren. One day 
 he called his vizier to him, and asked his 
 
THE queen's favourite STORY. 155 
 
 advice. Now the vizier was a wise man and 
 skilful, and he said, 'In the middle of a 
 great jungle far, far off, many hundreds of 
 miles away, hves a holy Fakir. He sits at 
 the foot of a great mango-tree, and sleeps 
 twelve years at a time, waking also for the 
 same length of time ; and he is surrounded 
 by spirits and ogres of superhuman power, 
 who carefully protect him from the intrusion 
 of mankind. This Fakir knows all enchant- 
 ments, and one of the mangoes from his holy 
 tree will cure any disease, and remove bar- 
 renness.' 
 
 So next day the king sat in durbar in 
 great state, and summoned all his nobles and 
 the officers of his army and of his house- 
 hold, and told them what the vizier had said. 
 But all were afraid, and not one offered to 
 face the perils of the way, and procure for 
 the king one of the enchanted mangoes, or 
 the Fakir's advice. 
 
 Then the king asked if there was any 
 man ready to risk his Hfe in this service ; 
 and they all, with one voice, every man of 
 them, said, ' I am ready/ 
 
156 PEIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 So the king had a glass of sherbet and a 
 plate of salt brought into the divan, and said, 
 ' Whoever undertakes this work must devote 
 himself to it by drinking the sherbet and 
 tasting the salt.' Every man sat still. No 
 man stirred. All were afraid. 
 
 At length the vizier himself, stepping for- 
 ward, pledged himself to the enterprise, and 
 drank the sherbet and tasted the salt. When 
 he had so done every man in the divan 
 lifted up his voice and said, ' I too am ready.' 
 But the king, despising vain words, arose 
 from his throne and embraced the vizier as 
 a brother, and kissed him, and promised him 
 half the kingdom on his return. 
 
 So the vizier set his house in order, and 
 went forth, with camp and followers, on his 
 long journey, the king escorting him, with 
 great pomp and splendour, to the gates of 
 the town. 
 
 Many weary days did the vizier journey 
 on, now crossing plains, now mountains, 
 another time deep and rapid rivers, and 
 again pathless jungles; but his heart was 
 good, and God was with him. 
 
THE queen's favourite STORY. 157 
 
 Wearied with a long day's march, he threw 
 himself down one evening under a tree to rest 
 himself, and as he was trying to go to sleep 
 he heard a parrot and a mina (a kind of mag- 
 pie) conversing in the tree above his heatilr; 
 and he knew the language of birds, and 
 listened, and lo ! they were talking of him. 
 
 ' Great is the sorrow of the king,' said the 
 mina, ' and great the valour of the vizier ; but 
 alas ! it is all of no avail. He will never 
 reach the Fakir.' 
 
 ' Why so, my brother ? ' asked the parrot. 
 
 ' Because there is a deep broad rapid 
 river before him, on which no boat ever 
 swam, and bevond that for a hundred miles 
 the country is defended by ogres and evil 
 spirits, whom no man can pass, and they 
 watch day and night.' 
 
 ' The vizier doubtless relies on God,' said 
 the parrot. 
 
 So the vizier was comforted by what the 
 parrot said, and turned and slept soundly, 
 and with a bold heart set forward next day 
 on his journey again, for his motives and 
 conscience were good. 
 
158 PRIVATE LIFE OP AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 And after journeying many days the 
 vizier came at length to the mighty river 
 which no man could pass, so broad and deep 
 and rapid was it, and on it no boat had ever 
 floated. There was no bridge, no human 
 being appeared, nothing but the mass of 
 water rolUng dark eternally on ; and for a 
 time the vizier's heart sank within him, and 
 he wept. But anon he remembered what 
 the parrot had said, ' The vizier doubtless 
 rehes on God,' and he dismissed his fears, 
 and felt stout of heart again, and prayed to 
 Heaven to help him. Now his motives and his 
 conscience were good, and Heaven heard his 
 prayer, and he heard a voice saying to him, 
 ' Be not afraid, walk straight on.' 
 
 Eight in front of him was the world of 
 waters, and for a moment his heart shrivelled 
 up within him, as a leaf is shrivelled up by 
 the fire ; but it was only for a moment, and 
 saying to himself, ' I trust in God,' he walked 
 into the waters. 
 
 Behold, the angel Gabriel was with him, 
 and bore him across the river safe to the 
 other side. 
 
THE queen's favourite STORY. 159 
 
 And when they had arrived at the other 
 side, the angel Gabriel said to him, 'Thou 
 didst trust in God, and thy faith is rewarded. 
 What seekest thou ? ' 
 
 So he told the whole story, and why he 
 had come, to the angel, and the angel said, 
 ' Dost thou know that for a hundred 
 miles round the Fakir ogres and evil spirits 
 guard the territory, and no human foot 
 can pass them? They sleep not day or 
 night.' 
 
 ' I trust in God,' was the vizier's reply. 
 
 So the angel was much pleased, and gave 
 the vizier two packets — a packet of fire and 
 a packet of water — with instructions how 
 to use them, and left him to go on his way 
 rejoicing. 
 
 And now the vizier entered a thick dark 
 forest, wherein was no path, but the angel 
 had told him how to proceed, and by the 
 sun in the daytime and by the stars at 
 night he guided himself ever onwards, 
 straight towards the Fakir, never sleeping or 
 slumbering for this himdred miles. 
 
 And as he went on one dark night, no 
 
160 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 light but that of the stars visible, and they 
 but dim, he heard mutterings as of evil 
 spirits in front of him,* and on his right hand, 
 and on his left, and behind him. In his 
 hand he had his staff, and, though his flesh 
 crept and his hair stood on end, he went 
 ever onwards through the dark forest. And 
 the mutterings increased to thunder, and 
 lightnings played about him, and trees fell, 
 and last of all, frightful awful shapes began 
 to appear — ^such shapes as would terrify 
 mankind in crowds by day, and the vizier 
 was alone in a thick forest by night. 
 
 Last of all, a mouth of fire, like the open- 
 ing of a great furnace, glared before him, 
 with large yellow saucer eyes above it, all 
 ahght with hate and fury, and the mouth 
 drew near as if to swallow him, whilst he 
 saw a thousand claws, as of hons, tigers, and 
 bears, ready to drag his body asunder. 
 
 Shouting out, ' I trust in God ! ' the vizier 
 scattered the packet of fire around him, as 
 the angel had directed, and the ogres and 
 evil spirits were burnt up, and the vizier was 
 saved from that danger. 
 
THE queen's favourite STORY. 161 
 
 But, saved though he was from the ogres 
 and the evil spirits, another danger awaited 
 him. The fire, which had consumed them, 
 seized upon the trees and the brushwood 
 around, and a great conflagration blazed on 
 every side, and the vizier was nearly sufib- 
 cated with the smoke, and saw the fire ever 
 drawing nearer. Then he bethought him of 
 the packet of water, and he scattered it 
 around ; and the water spread over the fire, 
 and extinguished it, and then swept on in a 
 body towards the great river. 
 
 Wearied and faint with his excessive la- 
 bours, the vizier repeated, ' I trust in God ! ' 
 and found himself on the further verge of the 
 great forest at daybreak, and a plain before 
 him, in the centre of which rose the mango- 
 tree, under which the Fakir was sitting. And 
 the air of this plain removed all his weariness 
 at once, and he felt fresh and strong and 
 active, and gave praise and glory to God. 
 
 Now the Fakir was a very old man, and 
 his appearance was dreadful, so that no man 
 without faith could look on him and retain 
 his senses. Grass and shrubs grew all over 
 
 M 
 
162 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 the Fakir, and his long white hair fell to the 
 ground, and, as he sat, his eyelashes, when 
 cast down, touched the ground, and all about 
 him was strange and weird and awful. 
 
 Birds of beautiful plumage and exquisite 
 song were in large numbers in the mango- 
 tree above him. 
 
 The vizier came before the Fakir salaaming 
 low, and as the Fakir took no notice, the 
 vizier stood on one foot, with hands joined, 
 in the attitude of submission and request, in 
 front of the Fakir. 
 
 The vizier still trusted in God, and the 
 Fakir still took no notice of him. 
 
 Then, for four-and-twenty hours the vizier 
 so stood, without food and without drink. 
 When the four-and-twenty hours had elapsed, 
 the Fakir raised his long eyelashes, and with 
 open eyes looked at the vizier for an hour, 
 and then said : — 
 
 ' What do you want ? ' 
 
 The voice was as thunder, or as the rolling 
 of distant drums — a voice to strike awe and 
 terror into man's heart. But the vizier 
 trusted in God, and answered bravely, and 
 
THE queen's favourite STORY. 163 
 
 told the fakir all that was in his heart, and 
 wherefore he had come. 
 
 Then the Fakir took his great staff up, and 
 gave it to the vizier, and said : — 
 
 ' Strike the mango-tree one blow, and 
 whatsoever falls from it is yours. Take it, 
 and begone, and trouble me no more.' 
 
 So the vizier did as he had been directed, 
 and took the staff, and struck the tree one 
 blow. Two mangoes fell, and the vizier 
 quickly took them up, and fastened them in 
 his waistband, and laid the staff by the 
 Fakir's side, and made his obeisance. But 
 the Fakir heeded him not, his eyes were 
 again on the ground, and his long eyelashes 
 drooping down covered them. 
 
 So the vizier praised God, and turned on 
 his way back rejoicing. 
 
 The magical virtue of the mangoes made 
 the way light and easy to him. He en- 
 countered no dangers. The angel Gabriel 
 again assisted him at the river. At the other 
 side he found his horse and attendants, and 
 went on his way back rejoicing. 
 
 The fame of his return spread to the court 
 
164 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEE]!«'. 
 
 of the king, who came out a day's journey 
 to meet him, bringing with him all the 
 courtiers who had been at the durbar, and 
 who had been afraid to undertake the expe- 
 dition. And when the king spoke to them 
 of it, they all answered with one voice, ' We 
 too were all ready to go.' 
 
 The vizier gave the king one of the man- 
 goes, and kept the other for his own wife, 
 who was also barren. 
 
 So the queen ate the mango, and in due 
 time a son was born to her — a fine hearty 
 healthy boy — and the king was wild with 
 delight. The vizier got half the kingdom, 
 and the country was all a scene of rejoicing, 
 and the king opened his treasury for three 
 days, so that all the poor might help them- 
 selves. 
 
 When the soothsayers and the astrologers 
 were collected together to prepare the boy's 
 horoscope, then the king was sad again, for 
 the wise men told him that the boy would 
 be heavy on his father's head for nine years 
 and nine months and nine days. When that 
 period was once passed, then all danger was 
 
THE queen's favourite STORY. 165 
 
 over. So the king sorrowfully had a beau- 
 tiful palace built for the prince, with high 
 walls all round, and in this was all that could 
 delight the boy, or minister to his happiness ; 
 and daily, almost hourly, the king got news 
 of his son's welfare. 
 
 Now the vizier's wife had had a daughter, 
 beautiful as a peri, and she was similarly 
 brought up in the other half of the kingdom. 
 Both were instructed in all learning, and were 
 good as they were learned and clever. 
 
 When the fated period had passed away, 
 the young prince was received in court with 
 great rejoicings, and hved happily for some 
 years with his father. 
 
 One day, in passing through the bazaar, 
 he saw Biswa Lukhy, a beautiful young 
 female, seated on the roof of a house. Their 
 eyes met, and they were in love. She was 
 not a girl of a reputable Hfe ; but she fasci- 
 nated the prince, and he spent with her all 
 the hours he could spare from the palace, 
 keeping the matter a secret from his father 
 and mother. 
 
 So things were in this state when the 
 
166 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTEEN QUEEN. 
 
 parents of tlie prince thought of marrying 
 him, and they chose the daughter of the 
 vizier, who had half the kingdom, and this 
 daughter was beautiful as a peri. By this 
 marriage all would be made happy, and the 
 kingdom would be reunited into one. 
 
 So the portrait of the prince was sent to 
 the court of the vizier, and the portrait of 
 the vizier's daughter, all set in diamonds, was 
 sent back. The diamonds were rich and 
 beautiful, but the eyes and features of the 
 face represented in this portrait were brighter 
 and more beautiful than the diamonds. The 
 king and queen were charmed with the por- 
 trait, and sent for their son to come and see 
 it. But he was in the bazaar with Biswa 
 Lukhy, by whom he had been fascinated. 
 
 Now Biswa Lukhy knew all that was going 
 on, and had heard of the arrival of the beauti- 
 ful portrait, and detained the prince on pur- 
 pose, plotting with her friends how to destroy 
 the portrait before the prince should see it. 
 
 So Biswa Lukhy sent for seven old witches 
 renowned in that town, and, after hearing 
 their own accounts of what they could each 
 
THE queen's FAVOUEITE STORY. 167 
 
 do, chose one of them, told her what she 
 wanted, and promised her rich rewards if 
 she would so deface the portrait, or mar its 
 beauty, that the prince would have no long- 
 ing to see the original. 
 
 The witch went off to perform what was 
 desired, and, having torn her clothes and 
 put ashes on her head, she sat down, weep- 
 ing and wailing, under the balcony where the 
 queen used to sit. 
 
 The queen sent an attendant to enquire 
 the cause of her sorrow, and the witch 
 rephed that if the queen would let her 
 come into the presence she would detail 
 it all, not otherwise. The queen admitted 
 her, and she proceeded to tell a sad tale of 
 family loss and bereavement, as having 
 happened in the city where the vizier held 
 his court, and the young princess lived. 
 
 The queen then gave the witch money, 
 and said, ' You have seen the princess, then ? ' 
 
 ' Every day for years,' was the reply, ' Did I 
 not daily go to the vizier's palace till I lost 
 my son ? ' 
 
 So the queen got out the portrait, and 
 
168 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 proceeded to take off its numerous wrappings 
 to show it to the witch, and asked if it was 
 Hke the princess. 
 
 The witch, pretending she could not see 
 it properly in the room, took the portrait 
 outside into the verandah, and there with 
 colour prepared for the purpose she quickly 
 destroyed the lustre of the eyes, and rendered 
 the mouth ugly. Then, hastily wrapping it 
 up again, as she was bringing it in, she said 
 to the queen that it was exactly like the 
 princess, who was beautiful as one of the 
 peris of the court of Indra. 
 
 Then, after some further conversation, the 
 old witch, child of the devil, made many 
 obeisances, and took her leave. 
 
 The prince soon after came in, and the 
 queen his mother put the portrait into his 
 hands at once, telling him to keep it till 
 he should obtain possession of the princess 
 as his bride. He took the portrait to his 
 own apartments, and, opening it, saw a 
 picture of a girl, blear-eyed and ugly mouthed, 
 in rich apparel, and he did not long to see 
 the original. But being a dutiful son, and 
 
THE queen's favourite STORY. 169 
 
 knowing that it was of advantage to have 
 the kingdom reunited again, he made no 
 opposition to the marriage, resolving in his 
 own mind, however, that Biswa Lukhy should 
 have still all his devotion. 
 
 As the day drew near for the bridegroom's 
 procession to go and meet the bride, and 
 bring her home, Biswa Lukhy pretended 
 to be taken ill with fear and anxiety, and 
 would not be comforted till the prince 
 promised to wear a bandage over his eyes, 
 under the wedding garland that always 
 adorned the bridegroom's head, and not to 
 look upon his bride till she, Biswa Lukhy, 
 gave him leave. 
 
 It was a very sad wedding for the young 
 bride, who began to fear that her husband 
 was blind, and that the fact had been pur- 
 posely concealed. However, like her father 
 the vizier, she trusted in God. 
 
 Some months passed away, and the young 
 prince spent his time with Biswa Lukhy; 
 and his young bride and his father and his 
 mother were all equally sorry : but still he 
 had never seen his bride, for Biswa Lukhy 
 
170 PEIYATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 had not permitted him, and he kept his 
 promise. And his bride was ever more 
 beautiful and more sad. 
 
 At length the princess made up a scheme of 
 her own, and got her father-in-law, the king, 
 to help her in carrying it out. He got an old 
 palace of his in the city, not far from where 
 Biswa Lukhy Hved, fitted up, and the princess 
 went to hve there. And the king ordered all 
 the milkwomen to remove to the neighbour- 
 hood of that palace, and thither they removed 
 and lived there, so that it was called the 
 milkwomen's quarter. 
 
 So the princess got a rich dress of many- 
 coloured silk woven for herself, and made 
 up in the manner of the dresses worn by the 
 Hindu milkwomen — full round the waist, and 
 the end crossing over the breast, from the 
 right side to the left shoulder, and then over 
 the head, hanging down to the waist. And 
 she had ornaments, the same as the Hindu 
 milk-sellers wore, made, but of the richest 
 materials, and a pitcher of gold, light and 
 beautiful, but still like the brass vessels in 
 which the Hindu milkwomen carried the 
 milk about. 
 
THE queen's favourite STORY. 171 
 
 Having got all these things prepared, she 
 took her pitcher of milk, and drew her veil 
 over her face, and she went towards the 
 house where Biswa Lukhy lived, and there, 
 just under the window, she began to sing — 
 
 Come, buy my milk, 
 
 Or good or bad ; 
 Come buy my milk, 
 
 And make me glad. 
 Nor rest, nor peace, 
 
 Nor joy is won, 
 Nor sorrows cease, 
 
 Till work is done. 
 Then buy my milk, 
 
 Or good or bad ; 
 Come buy my milk, 
 
 And make me glad. 
 
 The prince heard this strange song, so 
 different from the usual puffing up of the 
 seller's wares — heard it and wondered, and 
 went, simply from curiosity, to the window, 
 to see the milkwoman. Her appearance sur- 
 prised him — the rich dress, and the beauty 
 of the form — so he sent for her, and asked 
 the price of her vessel of milk. He 
 could not see her face, which was veiled, but 
 he was pleased with the grace of her 
 
172 PEIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 demeanour and tlie modesty of her manner. 
 ' The price of my milk is the full of this 
 vessel of silver,' was the answer to his ques- 
 tion. 
 
 He had the milk taken and the vessel filled 
 with silver in return, and then addressed her 
 in poetry gaily — 
 
 Come witli joy and gladness, 
 All gloom away we'll chase ; 
 
 Here put aside your sadness, 
 And unveil your pretty face. 
 
 But her answer was — 
 
 My milk is sold. 
 
 My work is done ; 
 My face I hold 
 
 My lord's alone. 
 
 So saying she departed, and Biswa Lukhy 
 was sulky that day, seeing the impression 
 that the milkmaid had made. 
 
 The next day the princess came again, and 
 the same scene was repeated, and Biswa 
 Lukhy was still more angry. 
 
 The third day the princess came again, 
 and the same scene was repeated, and Biswa 
 Lukhy could not restrain her rage, but would 
 have struck the pretended milkmaid, only 
 
THE queen's favoueite stoky. 173 
 
 that the prince prevented it, and, to take the 
 more care of her, followed her to the milk- 
 women's quarter. There, as she was entering 
 a side door of one of the outhouses of the 
 palace in which she lived, the prince again 
 addressed her softly in poetry once more — 
 
 Thy form is fair, 
 Thy jewels rare ; 
 But what thy face, 
 I cannot trace. 
 With envious fold 
 Thy veil doth hold 
 Its beauty hid, 
 My glance forbid. 
 Then be thou kind, 
 And ease my mind ; 
 Thy home, thy name. 
 Thy state proclaim. 
 
 And the maiden- wife answered him kindly, 
 and said — 
 
 Not now I reveal to thee, 
 
 Or make it all clear ; 
 Eeturn in the night to me, 
 
 And all thou shalt hear. 
 
 So saying she went rapidly inside, and the 
 prince, taking note of the door, returned as 
 soon as the light of day had departed, and 
 night had set in. 
 
174 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 In the mean time the princess had prepared 
 everything for his reception. The sitting- 
 rooms were decorated with the richest carpets, 
 and mirrors were on the walls, and chan- 
 dehers hung from the roof, multiphed a 
 thousandfold by the mirrors on all sides, and 
 a magnificent banquet was spread out in the 
 dining room. In her own room, all that art 
 and luxury could do to render the scene en- 
 chanting was accomplished, whilst dehcious 
 perfumes were wafted abroad from golden 
 censers, and soft music played at a distance. 
 The princess herself was in her costliest 
 apparel, every beauty heightened by art, and 
 the rich raven tresses of her hair adorned 
 with flowers and gems, whilst her cheeks be- 
 came red and pale by turns as she thought 
 of her husband and her love. 
 
 At length, as she was impatiently waiting 
 in her own apartment, a eunuch, who had 
 been stationed there for the purpose, intro- 
 duced him into the sitting-room, and he was 
 amazed at the wealth and luxury of the scene. 
 But when the princess herself, in all the blaze 
 of her beauty, appeared before him, he forgot 
 
THE QUEEN'S FAVOURITE STORY. 175 
 
 everything else, and would have fondled her 
 in his arms, thinking it was only the milk- 
 maid still. She repelled him, however, and 
 would suffer no embrace until all was known 
 and all revealed. They sat opposite to each 
 other ; a female story-teller was introduced 
 and began to give a history of a prince and 
 princess, a history similar to theirs, and as 
 the story proceeded the prince knew who 
 she was, and, telling the story-teller to depart, 
 pressed the princess to his heart, and heaven 
 smiled upon their virtuous love. 
 
 Next morning he sent for Biswa Lukhy, 
 and, embracing his wife, reproached the evil 
 doer for having kept him so long from so much 
 happiness ; and then, turning to his wife, he 
 said : ' Now choose the manner of her death, 
 my love. Shall she be buried alive, or shot to 
 death with poisoned arrows, or torn into four 
 pieces with wild horses ? * But the princess 
 would not choose, leaving it to her lord to 
 do as seemed good to him. So the prince 
 had Biswa Lukhy first buried ahve, care 
 having been taken to give her air enough to 
 live for twenty-four hours, and when the 
 
176 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTEEN QUEEN. 
 
 twenty-four hours were completed, and she 
 had felt the bitterness of that death, then she 
 was taken out, and shot at with poisoned 
 arrows, the prince himself putting an arrow 
 into each of those breasts on which his head 
 had often reposed, in consequence of her 
 falsehood and fascination; and, before she 
 was dead, four wild horses were brought, 
 and her arms and legs attached firmly, one 
 to each, and then the horses were driven off, 
 and Biswa Lukhy was torn to pieces. 
 
 Such was the story that, of all others, the 
 queen my mistress delighted most to hear ; 
 and when the affectionate meeting of the 
 prince and princess was described, with their 
 happiness, I have seen the tears stand in her 
 eyes with sympathy and joy. 
 
 And was not the end of Biswa Lukhy 
 cruel ? you ask, and was the fault altogether 
 hers? No, the end of Biswa Lukhy was 
 not cruel. She deserved it all, the vile slave, 
 for keeping a prince and princess apart by 
 
THE queen's PAVOUKITE STORY. 177 
 
 her falsehood and her fascination, and the 
 prince was quite right to put the poisoned 
 arrows into her bosom, for was not her heart 
 false ? Inshallah ! may all who act Hke her 
 suffer like her ! 
 
 Such is the end of Elihu Jan's story. 
 
 N 
 
178 
 
 CHAPTEE XYL 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 OuDH became a kingdom in 1814. Before 
 that, its sovereigns were styled nawabs. The 
 first king, Ghazee-ood-deen Hyder, reigned 
 from 1814 to 1827, and left in the treasury, at 
 his death, ten millions of pounds sterling. His 
 son, JSfussir-ood-deen Hyder, some of whose 
 doings are recorded in the ' Private Life of 
 an Eastern King,' reigned from 1827 to 1837, 
 and left in the treasury at his death about 
 700,000/. He had squandered not only the 
 regular annual income of the kingdom on his 
 pleasures and favourites, but also 9,300,000Z. 
 of the treasure accumulated by his father — 
 that is, about a million a year in addition to 
 the ordinary annual income. Nussir-ood-deen 
 Hyder was succeeded by his uncle, Mohamed 
 Aly Shah, who reigned from 1837 to 1842, 
 
CONCLUSION. 179 
 
 and left behind him in the treasury about 
 800,000/. His son, Umjid Aly Shah, con- 
 sort of that queen whose hfe is illustrated in 
 these pages, reigned from 1842 to 1847, and 
 left behind him in the treasury 1,360,000/. 
 He was succeeded by his son Wajid Aly Shah, 
 now the ex-king of Oudh, who reigned till 
 the annexation of the country to the British 
 dominions in India in 1856. 
 
 The account given by Ehhu Jan, in the 
 foregoing pages, of the palace life of Umjid 
 Aly Shah and Wajid Aly Shah, the two • last 
 kings of Oudh, is simple, plain, and unvar- 
 nished. In the present chapter I propose to. 
 illustrate the same life from other sources, 
 and chiefly from Sir W. Sleeman's ' Journey 
 through the Kingdom of Oudh,' which was; 
 published in London in 1858. 
 
 Sleeman, having been resident at the 
 court of Lucknow from 1849 to 1856, had 
 of course the best opportunity of becoming 
 acquainted with the state of the palace, and 
 the ordinary life of its principal inmates. 
 But his work was intended to serve a po- 
 litical purpose — his object was to show how 
 
 M 2 
 
180 PRIVATE LIFE OP AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 ruinous the misgovernment of the country 
 had been — and consequently the 'Journey 
 through the Kingdom of Oudh ' is more taken 
 up with the state of the provinces, the history 
 of the leading famihes, and the conversations 
 the resident held with the principal local 
 authorities, than with the doings at court. 
 These doings are, indeed, but incidentally 
 introduced here and there, and hence the 
 utihty of collecting them together, to serve as 
 an illustration of a state of society and of a 
 court now probably for ever passed away. 
 
 In August 1849, writing to Lord Dalhousie, 
 the resident gives the following account of 
 Wajid Aly Shah, then the reigning sovereign : 
 ' The king's habits will not alter. He was 
 allowed by his father to associate, as at present 
 he does, with singers from his boyhood, and 
 he cannot endure the society of other persons. 
 He no longer makes any attempt to conceal 
 his determination to live exclusively in their 
 society, and to hear and see nothing of what 
 his officers do, or his people suffer. What- 
 ever he has, he is ready to give to singers and 
 eunuchs, or he allows them to take. No man 
 
CONCLUSION. 181 
 
 can take charge of any office without antici- 
 pating the income by large gratuities to them, 
 and the average gratuity which a contractor 
 for a year of a district yielding three lacs of 
 rupees annually (30,000/.), is made to pay 
 before he leaves the capital to enter upon his 
 charge, is estimated to be 50,000 rupees 
 (5,000/.).' And again, in the same letter : 
 ' The king is utterly unfit to have anything 
 to do with the administration, since he has 
 never taken, or shown any wish to take, any 
 heed of what is done or sujOfered in the coun- 
 try. He spends all his time with singers and 
 the females they provide to amuse him, and 
 is for seven and eight hours together living in 
 the house of the chief singer, Eajee-ood- 
 Dowlah, a fellow who was only lately beating 
 a drum to a party of dancing girls, on some 
 four rupees a month. These singers are all 
 Domes, the lowest of the low castes of India, 
 and they and the eunuchs are now the virtual 
 sovereigns of the country.* 
 
 In the council of regency, which the 
 resident proposed, to supersede the king, the 
 king's mother — ' the queen my mistress ' of 
 
182 PEIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 Elihu Jan's narrative — is mentioned first by 
 Sir William, proving that she was a superior 
 woman. The resolution which she formed to 
 go to England after annexation, and the per- 
 severance and energy wi^h which she carried 
 out that resolution, are sufficient to prove 
 that the impression of the resident relative to 
 her ability was correct. 
 
 In September 1849, writing to the Governor- 
 General, the resident informs him in a post- 
 script : ' I may mention that the king is now 
 engaged in turning into verse a long prose 
 history called " Hydree." About ten days ago 
 all the poets of Lucknow were assembled at 
 the palace to hear his majesty read his poem. 
 They sat with him, listening to his, and read- 
 ing their own, poems, from nine at night till 
 three the next morning. One of the poets, 
 the eldest son of a late minister, Aga Meen by 
 name, told me that the versification was ex- 
 ceedingly good for a king. These are, I think, 
 the only men, save the minister, the eunuchs, 
 and the singers, who have had the honour of 
 conversing with his majesty since I came here.' 
 
 In writing, during the same month, to Sir 
 
CONCLUSION". 183 
 
 H. M. Elliott lie says : ' The king is in constant 
 dread of poison, and would do anything to 
 get relieved from that dread, and of all 
 further importunity on the state of the coun- 
 try. His chief w^^^ (Khash Mehal) would 
 poison him to bring on the throne her son, 
 and to restore to herself her paramour, who 
 is now at Cawnpore waiting for some such 
 change. Her uncle the minister would, the 
 king thinks, be glad to see him poisoned, in 
 the hope of having to conduct affairs during 
 the minority. He is afraid to admonish his 
 other chief wife for her infidehties with the 
 chief favourite and singer, lest she should 
 poison him to go off with her paramour to 
 Eampore, whither he has sent the immense 
 wealth that the king has lavished on him.' 
 
 Under date December 9, 1849, the resident 
 \\Tites : ' The king had several interviews 
 with one Sadik Aly, who pretended to be the 
 king of the fairies. His fairy majesty de- 
 scribed the symptoms from which the king 
 suffered, and prescribed remedies — these 
 remedies consisting chiefly of rich offerings to 
 the fairies, who were to reheve him. He 
 
184 PKIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTEHN QUEEJ3". 
 
 frequently received letters from the fairy king 
 to the same eJSect, written in an imperious 
 style suited to the occasion. The farce was 
 carried on for several months, and the king 
 at different times is supposed to have given 
 this Sadik Aly some two lacs of rupees 
 (20,000/.), which he shared with the singers.' 
 In the same month the king, having become 
 convinced of the knavery of this Sadik Aly, 
 and of the fact of the chief singer and others 
 of his court having been accomplices, pro- 
 mised Captain Bird, the assistant-resident, 
 that he would banish the culprits across the 
 Ganges. As the king seemed in no hurry, 
 however, to perform this promise. Captain 
 Bird demanded an audience, and was at first 
 refused, the king pleading indisposition. Ul- 
 timately the demand was comphed with, and 
 Captain Bird, on being introduced, found the 
 king in a small inner room of the palace, 
 lying on a cot covered with a quilt or ruzaie. 
 There were closed doors on the side of the 
 room where the cot was placed, and Captain 
 Bird perceived that persons were listening to 
 the conversation. On the minister advancing 
 
CONCLUSION. 185 
 
 to meet him at the door, Captain Birddechned 
 to take his hand, saying ' T beheve you are 
 an accomplice of these fiddlers, and are afraid 
 to have them removed, or else his majesty's 
 orders v^ould have been carried out before 
 this.' Captain Bird then advanced to the 
 king, and shook hands with him, when the 
 following conversation took place : — 
 
 Capt Bird. I have come to claim the 
 fulfilment of your majesty's promise to dis- 
 miss the singers, Gholam Euza and his sister, 
 and Kotub Aly, and to send them across the 
 Ganges. 
 
 The King. I never gave any such promise. 
 
 Capt Bird. Your majesty's promise was 
 given in the following words. (Captain Bird 
 here read the court news- writer's report of 
 the same.) 
 
 The king is uneasy, and apparently at a loss 
 for an answer. 
 
 The Minister. His majesty has ascertained 
 from the confession of Sadik Aly himself that 
 Gholam Euza and his sister are innocent in 
 this matter. 
 
 Capt. Bird, His majesty told me that 
 
186 PRIVATE LIFE OF AIs^ EASTERN QUEE^N". 
 
 the deception had been so fully proved that 
 they were speechless ; and further, that his 
 majesty had thereupon spit in their faces. 
 
 The King. No, not in Gholam Euza's. 
 His sister and Kotub Aly are alone guilty. 
 
 Capt Bird. If these parties are not re- 
 moved, according to your majesty's promise, 
 all Lucknow will say that I have been bribed 
 to permit them to remain. 
 
 The King. That is all nonsense. Do you 
 want me to swear that Gholam Euza is inno 
 cent, and that I never gave the promise you 
 mention ? 
 
 Then, calling the minister, the king placed 
 his right hand on the minister's head and said, 
 ' I swear, as if this were my son's head, and 
 by God, that I beheve Gholam Euza to be 
 entirely innocent ; and that I never promised 
 to turn him out, or banish him beyond the 
 Ganges. 
 
 Capt. Bird. Your majesty has, at all 
 events, acknowledged the guilt of Gholam 
 Euza's sister, and of Kotub Aly. Let punish- 
 ment be executed on the guilty. 
 
 The King. When absent from my sight, 
 
CONCLUSION. 187 
 
 •they are as far off as if they were across a 
 hundred rivers. I know they are intriguers. 
 I shall keep my eye on them. 
 
 Capt. Bird. I have reported this case 
 officially. Your majesty has made me a 
 participator in the breaking of your word. 
 
 The King. This case has reference only 
 to my own household, not to the govern- 
 ment ; but if you wish to use force, take me 
 by the beard, and pull me from the throne. 
 
 Capt. Bird. Often when force might have 
 been used, under your own sign-manual, on 
 these fiddlers interfering in state afiairs, the 
 resident has forborne. Now, who can be 
 your friend, or save you from danger ? I 
 must report all to the resident. 
 
 The King. Yes. Eeport that the king has 
 changed his mind, broken his word, and will 
 not fulfil his promise. Ask for permission to 
 employ force for the removal of these men, 
 and see if he will permit it. 
 
 Captain Bird shortly after took his leave, 
 and next day Sadik Aly, the pretended king 
 of the fairies, had a dress of honour conferred 
 upon him by the king, and a hundred rupees 
 
188 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN" QUEEN. 
 
 a montli added to his salary. Gholam Euza 
 and a relative of his were seated behind his 
 majesty, in his carriage and four, the same 
 evening, driving through the streets of 
 Lucknow. 
 
 Six months afterwards, however, in May 
 1850, the king had fourteen fiddlers and 
 singers, amongst whom were Gholam Euza, 
 his father, sister, and brother, seized and im- 
 prisoned, and shortly after banished them 
 across the Ganges, taking from them all the 
 wealth they had retained in Lucknow, for 
 they had sent the greater part out of Oudh. 
 The immediate cause of this banishment was 
 the king's having found out that his divorced 
 vdfe, Surfraz Muhal, was hving with the 
 chief singer, Gholam Euza. 
 
 Captain Bird was afterwards a strenuous 
 opposer of the annexation of Oudh, and 
 agent in England for the ex-king. He was 
 in attendance on the queen dowager of Oudh 
 when she visited England. 
 
 The following scene is highly characteristic, 
 and is certainly as extravagant as anything 
 related by Elihu Jan : — 
 
CONCLUSIOJT. 189 
 
 *In the beginning of Sept. 1850, the king 
 became enamoured of one of his mother's 
 waiting-maids, and demanded her in marriage. 
 She was his mother's favourite bedfellow, and 
 his mother would not part with her. The 
 king became angry, and to soothe him, his 
 mother told him it was purely out of regard 
 for him and his children that she refused to 
 part with this young woman, as she had a 
 sampun^ or the coiled figure of a snake, under 
 the hair on the back of her neck. Ko man 
 will purchase a horse with such a mark, or 
 beheve that any family can be safe in which 
 a horse or mare with such a mark is kept. 
 His mother told him, that, if he cohabited 
 with a woman having such a mark, he and 
 all his children would perish. 
 
 'The king then said that he might pro- 
 bably have, among his many wives, some 
 with marks of this kind, and that this might 
 account for his frequent attacks of palpitation 
 of the heart. " No doubt," said the queen 
 dowager. " We have long thought so ; but 
 your majesty gets into such a towering pas- 
 sion when we venture to speak of your 
 
190 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN" QUEEN. 
 
 wives, that we have been afraid to give ex- 
 pression to our thoughts and fears." " Perhaps, 
 said the king, ' I may owe to this cause the 
 death, lately, of my poor son, the heir appa- 
 rent." " We have long thought so," said the 
 queen. 
 
 ' The chief eunuch, Busheer, was forthwith 
 ordered to inspect the back of the necks of 
 all, save that of the chief consort, mother of 
 the late and present heir apparent. 
 
 ' He reported that he had found the fatal 
 mark upon the necks of no less than eight of 
 the king's wives — to wit, Nishat Mehal, 
 Koorshed Mehal, Soleman Mehal, Huzrut 
 Mehal, Dara Begum, Buree Begum, Chotee 
 Begum, and Huzrut Begum. The chief priest 
 was summoned, and divorce from the whole 
 eight pronounced forthwith ; and the ladies 
 were ordered to depart, with all that they 
 had saved whilst in the palace. Some of their 
 friends suggested that Mohammedans were 
 but unskilful judges in such matters, and that 
 a court of Brahmans should be assembled, 
 as they had whole volumes devoted exclu- 
 sively to this science. 
 
CONCLUSION. 191 
 
 ' The most learned Brahmans were accord- 
 ingly collected, and they declared that, though 
 there were marks resembhng in some degree 
 the sampun^ it was of no importance, and the 
 evil threatened might be averted by singeing 
 the head of the snake with a hot iron. The 
 ladies were very indignant, and six of them 
 insisted upon leaving the palace forthwith, in 
 virtue of the divorce. Two only consented 
 to remain, the Buree and Chotee Begums.' * 
 
 One of the six thus divorced, Huzrut Me- 
 hal, was the mother of that Brijis Kudr, son 
 of the king, whom the rebels proclaimed king 
 of Oudh during the mutiny, notwithstanding 
 her opposition. She is now living in Nepaul, 
 and lately got a village from Jung Bahadur, 
 yielding her about 4,000 rupees a year. 
 
 The following is an English lady's descrip- 
 tion of two beauties of the court of Oudh, and 
 is taken from Mrs. Park's 'Wanderings,' vol. i. 
 p. 87 : ' The king's wives were superbly 
 dressed, and looked like creatures of the 
 Arabian tales. One, Taj Mehal, was so beau- 
 tiful, that I could think of nothing but Lalla 
 * Sleeman's Journey, vol. i. p. 107. 
 
192 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 Eookh in her bridal attire. I never saw any- 
 one so lovely, either black or white. Her 
 features were perfect, and such eyes and eye- 
 lashes I never beheld before. At present she 
 appears to be the favourite, and is about four- 
 teen years of age. She is a httle creature, 
 with the smallest hands and feet, and the 
 most timid modest look imaginable. You 
 would have been charmed with her, she is so 
 graceful and swanhke. 
 
 ' Her dress was of gold and scarlet brocade, 
 and her hair was literally strewed with pearls, 
 which hung down upon her neck in long 
 single strings, terminating in large pearls, 
 which mixed with and hung as low as her 
 hair, which was curled on each side of her 
 head in long ringlets, like the beauties of the 
 court of Charles II. On her forehead she 
 wore a smaU gold circlet, from which de- 
 pended and hung, half-way down, large 
 pearls, interspersed with emeralds. Above 
 this was a bird of paradise plume, from which 
 strings of pearls were carried over the head, 
 as we turn back our hair. 
 
 'Her earrings were immense gold rings, 
 
CONCLUSION. 193 
 
 witli pearls and emeralds suspended all round 
 in large strings, tlie pearls increasing in size, 
 towards the centre. She had a nose-ring also, 
 with large round pearls and emeralds, and 
 her necklaces &c., were too numerous to be 
 described. 
 
 ' She wore long sleeves, open at the elbow ; 
 and her dress was a full petticoat, with a 
 tight body attached, and open only at the 
 throat. She had several attendants to bear 
 her train when she walked ; and her women 
 stood behind her couch to arrange her head- 
 dress, when, in moving, the strings of pearls 
 got entangled in the immense robe of scarlet 
 and gold she had thrown around her. This 
 beautiful creature is the envy of all the other 
 wives, and the favourite at present both of the 
 king and his mother, both of whom have 
 given her titles of honour. 
 
 ' The other newly-made queen is nearly 
 European, but not a whit fairer than Taj 
 Mehal. She is, in my opinion, plain ; but by 
 the native ladies she is considered very hand- 
 some. She was the king's favourite before he 
 saw Taj Mehal. Her head-dress was a 
 
 
 
194 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 coronet of diamonds, with a fine crescent and 
 plume of the same. She is the daughter of 
 a European merchant, and is accomphshed 
 for the inhabitant of a zenana, as she writes 
 and speaks Persian fluently, as well as Hin- 
 dustanee. It is said that she is teaching the 
 king English, though when we spoke to her 
 in Enghsh, she said she had forgotten it, and 
 could not reply in that language. She was, 
 I fancy, afraid of the queen dowager, as she 
 evidently understood us, and when asked if 
 she liked being in the harem, she shook her 
 head and looked quite melancholy. Jealousy 
 of the new favourite, however, appeared to be 
 the cause of her discontent, as, though they 
 sat on the same couch, they never addressed 
 each other. 
 
 ' The mother of the king's children, and 
 of the heir-apparent, did not visit us at the 
 queen dowager's ; but we went to see her at 
 her own palace. She is, after all, the con- 
 sort of most political importance, and, it is 
 said, has great power over her royal husband, 
 whose ears she sometimes boxes soundly.' 
 
 So much for the inner life of the palace ; 
 
CONCLUSION. 195 
 
 and now, witli a few observations on the way 
 in which business was transacted in the court 
 of the ex-king, and the state of the country 
 under him, I shall conclude. If anyone can 
 have a doubt as to the expediency of having 
 annexed a country, the government of which 
 was so frightfully mismanaged, let him con- 
 sider calmly the picture here presented, and 
 then reflect that Oudh, at the present mo- 
 ment, is one of the most peaceful, quiet, 
 orderly, and best-governed countries in India, 
 advancing rapidly in a career of develop- 
 ment of its natural resources, and of internal 
 improvement — so rapidly, indeed, that where, 
 eight years ago, all was confusion,- lawless- 
 ness, rapine, and violence, roads are now 
 being constructed, navigable rivers opened 
 up to trade, the country can be traversed 
 from one end to the other with the same 
 security as the traveller journeys in England, 
 and law and justice are supreme. 
 
 It might be supposed that, if the king 
 himself did not transact the public business 
 when he was upon the throne, at least his 
 vizier or prime minister did. Such, however, 
 
 o 2 
 
196 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTEEN QUEEN. 
 
 was not the case. The vizier put neither 
 his seal nor signature on any pubhc orders. 
 Probably, fear of the caprice which dictated 
 all the proceedings of the king, and fear of 
 the intrigues of the palace, were the causes 
 of this strange omission. The only thing in 
 the vizier's handwriting, when an order was 
 passed, was the figure indicating the date, or 
 day of the month. During times of festivity 
 and rehgious fasts, papers accumulated to 
 such an extent, that a miscellaneous bundle 
 was tied up by a string, and the vizier put 
 the figure indicating the day of the month, 
 outside, once for all, and then his deputies, 
 favourites, or secretaries, passed the orders. 
 Nothing but the figure, in the vizier's hand- 
 writing, attested the genuineness of the 
 order, and that figure he himself could not 
 truly swear to in a month. Thus, he could 
 always repudiate any order that turned out 
 to be obnoxious, and the writer of it would 
 probably be warned in time to make his 
 escape. 
 
 These deputies, favourites, and secretaries 
 of the vizier were of course perfectly aware 
 
CONCLUSION. 197 
 
 of tlie large sums of money which he ille- 
 gally received as gratuities, or nuzzeranas^ 
 and they took care that further exactions 
 were made on their own account. Thus, all 
 were bound together by a common interest, 
 and they well knew that, although they 
 might be in disgrace one day, their turn 
 would come again after a httle, when the 
 storm had blown over, and their offence was 
 forgotten. 
 
 In October 1850 Hussun Khan, one of 
 the king's pages, whose duty it was to sub- 
 mit letters and documents to the king, fell 
 under his majesty's displeasure, and his estate 
 was confiscated, and his house searched. 
 Amongst his papers, several of the resident's 
 official notes to the king were found un- 
 opened, some of them marked ' emergent.' 
 Now, it must be evident that Hussun Khan 
 found the evil of not delivering such letters 
 the less evil of the two — the anger of an un- 
 principled tyrant falling usually in the first 
 instance on the bearer of unpleasant tidings. 
 
 Under former sovereigns, from ten to 
 fifteen per cent, of the net collections of 
 
198 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 revenue found their way into the hands of the 
 minister . and his sateUites ; but, under the 
 reign of Wajid Aly, not less than twenty-five 
 per cent, were thus embezzled ; and, in fact, 
 things were coming to such a pass in 
 Lucknow, that, although his father left in 
 the treasury nearly a million and a half of 
 money, on his death, in 1847, the ex-king 
 was deeply embarrassed as early as 1850 — 
 all the revenue and all the savings in the 
 treasury having been spent, and no money 
 forthcoming to pay troops or pubhc servants 
 of any kind, except those in immediate at- 
 tendance on the court. 
 
 'Under the present wretched system,* 
 wrote Sir W. Sleeman in 1851, 'the con- 
 tractors who have the farm of the revenue 
 let out districts to subordinate ofiicers, who 
 abuse their authority as much as contractors 
 and court favourites abuse theirs, and com- 
 mit all kinds of outrages on the unoffending 
 people. Security to life and property is 
 disregarded, and is unknown.' * 
 
 And again he writes : ' In this overgrown 
 
 * Journey through Oudh, vol. i. p. 202. 
 
CONCLUSION. 199 
 
 city (Lucknow) there is a perpetual turmoil 
 of processions, illuminations, and festivities. 
 The sovereign spends all that he can get on 
 them, and has not the slightest wish to per- 
 petuate his name by the construction of any 
 useful or even ornamental work beyond its 
 suburbs. All the members of his family, 
 and of the city aristocracy, foUow his ex- 
 ample, and spend their means in the same 
 way. Utterly indifferent to the feelings and 
 opinions of the landed aristocracy and the 
 people of the country, with whom they have 
 no sympathy whatever, they spend all that 
 they can obtain from the pubhc in gratifying 
 the vitiated tastes of the overgrown me- 
 tropolis. The king is utterly indifferent to 
 the duties and responsibihties of his high 
 office, and to the sufferings of the many 
 miUions subject to his rule. His time and 
 attention are devoted entirely to the pursuit 
 of personal gratifications. He associates with 
 none but such as contribute to such gratifi- 
 cation — ^women, singers, fiddlers, and eu- 
 nuchs. He never, I beheve, reads or hears 
 any petition from his suffering people, any 
 
200 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTEEN QUEEN. 
 
 report from his local officers, civil or mili- 
 tary, or, in fact, functionaries of any kind. 
 He takes no interest whatever in public 
 affairs, and appears to care nothing whatever 
 about them.' 
 
 When such was the state of the court, and 
 of Lucknow, it may be easily conceived what 
 the condition of the more remote districts of 
 the country was. Fortunately, however, we 
 are not left to conjecture in this matter. In 
 1850 and 1851, Sir W. Sleeman himself 
 went through the country, saw everything 
 with his own eyes, and has left on record 
 the results of his inspection. The follow- 
 ing details, relative to the sufferings of the 
 agricultural population, are partly drawn 
 from Sir William's narrative, and partly de- 
 rived from information I have myself received 
 from the villagers in going through the 
 country on official tours. 
 
 In the Durriabad district, Bhooree IGian 
 was one of the most notorious leaders of 
 robbers and dacoits, from 1846 to 1851, and 
 the government was unable or unwilling to 
 punish his misconduct. In 1848, he attacked 
 
CONCLUSION. 201 
 
 a village in the neighbourliood of Eedowly, 
 and, having driven off a hundred and fifty- 
 head of cattle, he seized Ousan, an Upuddhya 
 Brahman, and Peer Khan, a Mussulman, two 
 of the wealthiest inhabitants, with their sons, 
 in order to extort ransom from them. Ousan's 
 ransom was fixed at 1,200 rupees (120^.), and 
 Peer Khan's at 800 rupees (80/.). Ousan 
 himself was let go in order that he might 
 raise the money, whilst his two sons, fourteen 
 and sixteen years of age respectively, were 
 retained as hostages. Ousan could only raise 
 700 rupees (70/.), which amount he sent. 
 Bhooree Khan was not satisfied, and, on the 
 expiration of the time allowed, brought out 
 the two boys, half starved, from their place of 
 confinement, with fetters on their legs, and 
 bamboo collars round their necks. Having 
 tied them to two trees, he and his band shot 
 at them with bows and arrows, and left them 
 so to die. 
 
 Peer IQian had no sons ; but his two 
 younger brothers were seized as hostages, 
 whilst the unfortunate man himself was 
 allowed to go to procure the amount of 
 
202 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 ransom. As this amount was not forth- 
 coming at the appointed time, Bhooree Khan 
 had the two young men beaten with sticks, 
 iron spikes driven up under their nails, their 
 eyehds sewn up with needle and thread, 
 their beards burned off with lighted flam- 
 beaux, and other tortures inflicted that can- 
 not be particularised. Next day. Peer Khan 
 brought the amount, 800 rupees, and his 
 brothers, more dead than ahve, were re- 
 leased. One of them died a day or two 
 afterwards of the sufferings he had endured ; 
 the other Hved, impotent and a cripple. 
 
 This same Bhooree Khan next year at- 
 tacked the house of DuUa, the most opulent 
 merchant of Muhdoompore, and succeeded in 
 seizing his son Nychint, and his grandson, 
 son of Nychint, Ajoodhya by name. The 
 females of the family fortunately escaped, 
 and the robbers could not find the treasures 
 of which they were in search, but which 
 they knew were buried somewhere in or 
 near the house. A Brahman, named Cheyn, 
 who knew Dulla, and knew also where the 
 treasure was buried, was also made prisoner. 
 
CONCLUSION. 203 
 
 Next day, Bhooree Khan brought forth 
 Nychint, and ordered him to point out where 
 the valuables were buried. This he would 
 not do, and Bhooree Khan had four tent-pegs 
 driven into the ground, placed Nychint on 
 his face on the ground, and had his feet and 
 hands tied to the pegs. He then had the 
 unfortunate prisoner burnt to the bone in 
 several places with red-hot ramrods, but 
 Nychint still refused to point out the 
 treasure. 
 
 A large brass vessel of oil was then heated 
 to the boiling-point, and the boiling oil was 
 poured over Nychint's body — the skin peel- 
 ing off, and the poor sufferer becoming in- 
 sensible. When Nychint recovered his senses, 
 he pointed out the spot. Property in gold, 
 silver, brass vessels, and grain, to the amount 
 of 150,000 rupees (15,000/.), is said to have 
 been carried off by the freebooter. Nychint 
 was unbound and released, but died the 
 same night. 
 
 Such narratives might be indefinitely mul- 
 tiplied, with more horrible tales of torture 
 inflicted upon unoffending women and girls, 
 
204 PEIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERIS" QUEEK 
 
 but I refrain. In commenting on this history 
 of Bhooree Khan, Sir W. Sleeman writes : 
 ' An Enghshman may ask how it is that a 
 wretch guilty of such cruelties to men who 
 have never injured him, to innocent and un- 
 offending women and children, can find, in a 
 society where slavery is not recognised, men 
 to assist him in inflicting them, and land- 
 holders of high rank and large possessions to 
 screen and shelter him when pursued by 
 government. For a solution of this problem 
 he must go back to the middle ages, in Eng- 
 land and the other nations of Europe, when 
 the baronial proprietors of the soil, too strong 
 for their sovereigns, committed the same 
 cruelties, found the same willing instruments 
 in their retainers, and members of the same 
 class of landed proprietors, to screen, shelter 
 and encourage them in their iniquities. 
 
 ' They acquiesce in the atrocities com- 
 mitted by one who is in armed opposition to 
 the government to-day, and they aid him in 
 his enterprises, openly or secretly, because 
 they know that they may be in the same 
 condition, and require the same aid from him 
 
CONCLUSION". 205 
 
 to-morrow ; that the more sturdy the resist- 
 ance made by one, the less Hkely will the 
 government officers be to rouse the resistance 
 of the others. They do not sympathise with 
 those who suffer from his depredations, or 
 aid the government officers in protecting 
 them, because they know that they could not 
 support the means required to enable them 
 successfully to contend with their sovereign 
 and reduce him to terms, without plundering 
 and occasionally murdering the innocent of 
 all ages and both sexes, and that they may 
 have to raise the same means for a similar 
 contest to-morrow. They are satisfied, there- 
 fore, if they can save their own tenants from 
 pillage and slaughter. They find moreover 
 that the sufferings of others enable them to 
 get cultivators and useful tenants of all kinds 
 upon their own estates on easier terms ; 
 whilst it induces the smaller proprietors 
 around to yield up their lands and become 
 their tenants with less difficulty. It was in 
 the same manner that the great feudal barons 
 aggrandised themselves in England, and in the 
 other countries of Europe, in the middle ages. 
 
206 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 Happily this state of things is now at an 
 end. The large landholders know that they 
 cannot resist the power of the British 
 government. They have been concihated 
 by judicious concessions, their estates gua- 
 ranteed to them in perpetuity, and many 
 of them have been invested with judicial 
 powers, which they exercise, for the most 
 part, with judgment and discretion. That 
 one or two of them should have abused their 
 power, and endeavoured to use that as an 
 instrument of oppression which was granted 
 for the public good, was but to be expected 
 in the nature of things. But that the country 
 has entered upon a career of prosperity, 
 which, if peace be continued, will soon 
 render it the garden of India, is undoubted. 
 
 In the mean time, the folly of the ex-king 
 and his court continues as great as ever. 
 His palace, at Garden Eeach in Calcutta, is 
 the Alsatia of India, and the following extract 
 from a late number of the Calcutta ' Hurkaru' 
 newspaper (May 1864) shows that the career 
 of insensate folly commened in Lucknow, 
 when ruling an extensive country, continues 
 
CONCLUSION. 207 
 
 unabated in the comparative retirement of 
 Ms pensioned idleness : — 
 
 ' The ex-king of Oudh has, with the pious 
 resignation of ancient heroes, subsided into 
 the happy and contented enjoyment of his 
 present state. His majesty's time is equally 
 divided between religious exercises, which he 
 has never neglected, even during his worst 
 days, and the care and collection of wild 
 animals of every kind. It is true that the 
 royal tastes are occasionally rather expensive, 
 subjecting the royal exchequer to sudden 
 and extraordinary demands, and the accoun- 
 tant-general of the royal revenues to cruel 
 embarrassments. But the pursuit of know- 
 ledge, even under difficulties, is held to be 
 laudable, and there are those about his 
 Majesty's person who take care that his love 
 of nature shall never lack encouragement 
 and gratification. 
 
 ' We do not know whether they belong to 
 the scientific society recently established by 
 an enterprising and learned moolvie of 
 Ghazeepore, which boasts the duke of Argyle 
 for its president and patron, and which 
 
208 PEIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 dedicates its books to his grace. But the 
 zeal with which they keep aHve the royal 
 devotion to natural history, within the 
 purheus of Garden Eeach, entitles them to 
 any distinction within the power of the 
 society to confer. 
 
 'It is nothing unusual for them to present 
 his majesty with a pair of peacocks, pur- 
 chased for thirty thousand rupees (3,000/.) ; 
 or a cage of canaries of a remarkable descrip- 
 tion, for half a lac of rupees (5,000/.). 
 
 ' It is enough that a beast or a bird, even 
 of the commonest kind, should have some 
 unusual mark or feature about it, so as to be 
 quite unlike others of the same species, and it 
 obtains a place at once in the royal menagerie, 
 and displaces some thousands of rupees from 
 the royal treasure-chests. 
 
 ' The other day, a pair of vultures, a species 
 of bird remarkable for the beauty and rich- 
 ness of their plumage, and the gracefulness 
 of their movements, Avere brought before the 
 ex-king, and a warty excrescence on the 
 head of each — certainly improving their 
 appearance — was pointed out The crea- 
 
CONCLUSION. 209 
 
 tures were hugely admired, and the man 
 who brought them was asked to name his 
 price. "Fifty thousand rupees" (5,000/.). 
 " Fifty thousand rupees ! well, let it be fifty 
 thousand," and the accountant-general was 
 ordered to pay up. But that high dignitary 
 found no more than thirty-five thousand in 
 the royal treasury, and that amount was 
 ordinarily retained, as a reserve fund, to 
 meet extraordinary calls. This faithful ser- 
 vant therefore demurred to parting with the 
 last rupee before the next pay-day. He 
 was alternately laughed and frowned out of 
 his scruples, and the entire amount went in 
 part payment for the vultures. 
 
 'But there remained a balance of fifteen 
 thousand rupees (1,500Z.) to be paid, and 
 neither cash nor credit was to be had. 
 
 ' In this dilemma, one of the two golden 
 bedsteads, made during the reign of the 
 great Saadut Aly Khan, was broken up, 
 melted down, and the balance paid. 
 
 'These matters are not intruded on the 
 pubHc out of an idle passion for gossip. 
 They prove how much philosophy may do 
 
210 PRIVATE LIFE OF AN EASTERN QUEEN. 
 
 to reconcile one to the loss of a throne and 
 kingdom ; and truly thankful the tax-payers 
 of India ought to be that, under the en- 
 lightened and strictly honest guiding of the 
 courtiers, by whom the ex-king is sur- 
 rounded, his majesty is making such ex- 
 cellent use of their money/ 
 
 The ex-king's pension is a lac of rupees a 
 month, or 120,000/. a year. 
 
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