admired her, and induced his Majesty to marry her. Her name is Gosseina; she is not pretty, but possesses great influence over her royal lover. This girl, some fourteen months ago, was dancing at the Residency for twenty-five rupees a night: and a woman of such low caste not even a sā'īs would have married her. The King now calls the hakīm his father-in-law, and says, "I have married your daughter, but you have not married her mother; I insist on your marrying her mother." The hakīm tries to fight off, and says he is too old; but the King often annoys him by asking when the marriage is to take place.
"There is no bird like a man[1]," i.e. so volatile and unsteady.
The beautiful Tajmah[)u]l, whom I mentioned in Chapter X., is entirely superseded by this Gosseina, the present reigning favourite; Tajmah[)u]l has taken to drinking, and all the King's drunken bouts are held at her house.
When he marched to Cawnpore, he took Tajmah[)u]l and Gosseina with him, and their retinue was immense. It is said, that the beautiful Timoorian, Sultana Boa, the Princess of Delhi, was so much disgusted at her father's being forced to give her in marriage to Nusseer-ood-Deen Hydur, and looked upon him as a man of such low caste, in comparison with herself, that she never allowed him to enter her palace,—a virgin queen.
Her sister, Mulka Begam, married her first cousin, Mirza Selim, the son of the emperor, Akbār Shah; from whom she eloped with Mr. James Gardner, and to the latter she was afterwards married. This elopement was the cause of the greatest annoyance and distress to Col. Gardner, nor did he grant his forgiveness to his son for years afterwards.
Affairs being in so unpleasant a state at the Court of Lucnow, was the cause of Lady Wm. Bentinck's being unable to visit the zenāna; and after her ladyship's departure, I was prevented going there by the same reason.
One cannot be surprised at a Musulmān's taking advantage of the permission given him by his lawgiver with respect to a plurality of wives.
- ↑ Oriental Proverbs, No. 41.
