CHAPTER X.
LIFE IN THE ZENĀNA.
"SHE WHO IS BELOVED, IS THE WIFE[1]."
Zenāna of the King of Oude—Regiment of Females—The Favourite Wife—The
English Begam—The Princess of Delhi, the Begam par excellence—Colonel
Gardner—Mirza Sulimān Sheko and his fifty-two Children—The
forty Princesses—Mootee, the Pearl of the Desert—Hunting Season at Papamhow—Jackals
and Foxes—A Suttee at Prāg—Report of a Suttee—An ill-starred
Horse.
Oct. 1828.—A letter just received from a lady, a friend of mine, at Lucnow, is so amusing and so novel, I must make an extract:—
"The other day, (Oct. 18th,) was the anniversary of the King of Oude's coronation; and I went to see the ceremony, one I had never witnessed before, and with which I was much gratified. But the greatest treat was a visit to the begam's afterwards, when the whole of the wives, aunts, cousins, &c., were assembled in state to receive us.
"The old begam (the king's mother), was the great lady, of course, and in her palace were we received; the others being considered her guests, as well as ourselves. It was a most amusing sight, as I had never witnessed the interior of a zenāna before, and so many women assembled at once I had never beheld. I suppose from first to last we saw some thousands. Women-bearers carried our tanjans; a regiment of female gold
- ↑ Oriental Proverbs, No. 22.
