Page:Lord Amherst and the British Advance Eastwards to Burma.djvu/193

Rh a translation from the Persian of a letter from Lakshmí Bái to the Baiza Bái.

'On our arrival at the house we found that a high wall of cloth had been placed round the door on every side and all necessary precautions taken, that none of us might be polluted by the fame-destroying eyes of the English Sahibs. Two ladies were sent to conduct us to the Zenana. I was so much agitated at approaching the great lady that 1 could hardly breathe. For some time I was hardly able to lift my eyes to her countenance, which was dazzling as the sun at noonday. After making the usual salutations and inquiring after each other's health we sat down. The great lady was sitting on a golden Musnid of curious workmanship and resembling the mountain Kailás in splendour; she did not sit cross-legs like your Highness, but with her feet hanging down to the ground in a strange manner which I cannot describe, but which I think must be very painful. The great lady's stature is exalted as the Heavens, and her appearance surpassing that of the other ladies who were present, as the full moon does that of two days old. On the top of her turban she wore a waving plume of white feathers resembling the wing of the Scivroogh, and on the front of the turban was a Sirpesch of light-scattering diamonds which sparkled like the Pleiades. The other parts of the Sahibin's dress it is impossible to describe, being entirely different to the dress worn by the ladies of our country. She did not wear a Sary or Dossuttah or even Pyjamas: neither did she wear nose rings, which was very surprising; but what caused me most astonishment was that her throat and neck were quite uncovered. This shocked me very much. There were a great many more of the great lord's wives present; some were very handsome, but most of them so horridly white that they appeared like figures of marble. Alter we had all