Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 1.djvu/470

 CHAPTER XXXIII.

REVELATIONS OF LIFE IN THE ZENĀNA.

"WHOEVER HATH GIVEN HIS HEART TO A BELOVED OBJECT, HATH PUT HIS BEARD INTO THE HANDS OF ANOTHER ."

Invitation to Khasgunge—Kutchowra—The Zenāna—A Timoorion Princess—Opium-eating—Native Dishes—The Evening Party—The beautiful Begam—Musalmanī Attire and Ornaments.—Timūr-lung—Gold and Silver Beds—Atr of various sorts—Perfume of the Body of the Prophet—Dye for the Hands and Feet—Churees.

1835, Feb.—Khasgunge, the residence of my friend Colonel Gardner, is sixty miles from Agra: he wrote to me expressing a wish that I should visit him, and regretting he was too unwell to meet me at Agra, and conduct me to his house. I was delighted to accept the invitation, particularly at this time, as he informed me a marriage was to take place in his family which might interest me.

His grand-daughter, Susan Gardner, was on the eve of marriage with one of the princes of Delhi, and he wished me to witness the ceremony. I was also invited to pay a visit en route to his son, Mr. James Gardner, who was married to a niece of the reigning emperor, Akbar Shāh.

Was not this delightful? All my dreams in the Turret of Noor-māhāl were to be turned into reality. I was to have an opportunity of viewing life in the zenāna, of seeing the native ladies of the East, women of high rank, in the seclusion of their own apartments, in private life: and although the emperors