Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/43

 This good deed is not without its reward; three or four hundred workmen are thus supported; the wool is brought from Cashmir, and the sale of the shawls gives a handsome profit. I did not admire them; they are manufactured to suit the taste of the English, and are too heavy; but they are handsome, and the patterns strictly Indian. Colonel Gardner's Begam said to me one day, at Khāsgunge, "Look at these shawls, how beautiful they are! If you wish to judge of an Indian shawl, shut your eyes and feel it; the touch is the test of a good one. Such shawls as these are not made at the present day in Cashmir; the English have spoiled the market. The shawls made now are very handsome, but so thick and heavy, they are only fit for carpets, not for ladies' attire."

26th.—The Nawāb Hakīm Menhdī called, bringing with him his son, a man about forty years of age, called "The General." He invited me to pay him and the Begam a visit, and wished to show me his residence.

29th.—We drove to the Nawāb's house, which is a good one; he received us at the door, and took my arm, instead of giving me his. He is a fine-looking old man, older than Colonel Gardner, whom in style he somewhat resembles; his manners are distinguished and excellent. He wore an embroidered cap, with a silver muslin twisted like a cord, and put around it, as a turban; it was very graceful, and his dress was of white muslin. The rooms of his house are most curious; more like a shop in the China bazār, in Calcutta, than any thing else; full of lumber, mixed with articles of value. Tables were spread all down the centre of the room, covered with most heterogeneous articles: round the room were glass cases, full of clocks, watches, sun-*dials, compasses, guns, pistols, swords; every thing you can imagine might be found in these cases.

The Hakīm was making all due preparation for celebrating the Muharram in the most splendid style; he was a very religious man, and kept the fast with wonderful strictness and fortitude. A very lofty room was fitted up as a Taziya Khāna, or house of mourning; from the ceiling hung chandeliers of glass of every colour, as thickly as it was possible to place them, all the length