Gardner replied, "Shubbeah is engaged to the Prince:" but, said I, "Do you think she likes him?" "How little you know of the natives!" he replied; "it would be considered the greatest indelicacy for a girl to prefer one man to another, or to have seen the man to whom she is to be united. Tell Mr. I am flattered by his wish to be of my family, and would willingly give him my grand-daughter, but the Begam is bent on this grand alliance, as she considers it: I have withheld my consent for years; 'The house may be filled with the falling of drops[1];' i. e. continual dripping wears away stones. She has carried the point. I have been happy in my marriage, but I would not advise an European gentleman to marry a native lady. With respect to the proposals of the other gentleman, in a worldly point of view it would be a good match; but I do not like the man; I cannot bestow upon him the Morning Star."
Bānā Beebee Sāhiba was also there; in her younger days she must have been pretty; her liveliness she still retained.
The guests smoked the hooq[)u], and ate pān; some very delicate pān was prepared for me, of which I partook for the first time, and rather liked it.
At the end of the evening, the Begam gave her guests liberty to depart; pān and atr of roses were presented to us; rose-water was sprinkled over us; we made salām in due form, and returned to the outer house.
The Begam has a guard of honour of forty men, who live at the entrance of the zenāna, and guard the gateway night and day.
I must not forget the old Nawāb of Cambay, the uncle of the Begam; he is quite a character, and a very singular one; he has visited England; he used to dine at the table with us, and would take sherry with the guests. When a lady was at table he would take sherry; if gentlemen only were present, the sherry was discarded for brandy: one day I observed he drank some white spirit, and found it was a strong spirit he himself distilled
- ↑ Oriental Proverbs, No. 80.
