“The Queen is the daughter of his Royal Highness Mirza Muhammad Sulimān Shekō, the own brother of the present Emperor of Delhi, Akbar Shāh.
“From the first day after marriage, neglected and ill-treated, she was only allowed, until lately, twenty rupees a day; she has now 2000 rupees a month, but is not permitted to leave her apartments; the servants of her family have all been discharged, and she is in fact a prisoner. Neither the King nor any of his family ever visit her, and no other person is permitted to approach her apartments.
“The lady of the Resident told me, ‘She is a great beauty, the handsomest woman she ever saw;’ I have seen her sister, and can easily believe she has not exaggerated. The Queen is now about sixteen or seventeen years old (1830), and has been married, I believe, about five years.
“Mirza Sulimān Shekō, the father, lived at Lucnow since the time of Ussuf-ood-Dowla, and was forced by the late King of Oude to give him his daughter in marriage. The mehn (dower) of the Princess was settled at five crores[70], and the father had a grant of 5000 rupees a month, which is not paid; and in June, 1828, the Prince was insulted, and obliged to quit Lucnow with every sort of indignity.”
MULKA ZUMANEE.
“The second begam is the wife of Ramzānee, a cherkut or elephant servant, who is now pensioned on thirty rupees a month, and kept in surveillance at Sandee; some time after her marriage the lady proved naughty, and was next acknowledged as the chère amie of an itinerant barber; she left him, and took service with Mirza Jewad Ali Beg’s family as a servant-of-all-work, on eight anās a month and her food. She was next heard of as a gram-grinder at ⸺serai, where her eldest son, by name Tillooah, was born; her next child was a daughter.
“At this time Moonah Jāh (Feredooa Buckht) was born in the palace; and, amongst others who sought the situation of nurse, Ramzanee’s wife attended; she was approved of by the hākims, and was installed nurse to the heir-apparent.
“Her age was then near forty, her size immoderate, her complexion the darkest; but she soon obtained such influence over the King, that he married her, and gave her the title of—(the daughter of the Emperor Furrukshere, and the wife of the Emperor Mohummud Shāh,)—Mulka Zumanee! Well may she exclaim, ‘Oh Father! I have got into a strange difficulty, I have left off picking up cow-dung, and am employed in embroidery[71]!’
“She has a jagheer of 50,000 rupees a month, and the power of expending 50,000 rupees more from the treasury monthly. Her son Tillooah was about three years of age when she was entertained as nurse, but such was her power, that his Majesty publicly declared himself the father of the boy, and he was in consequence recognised as heir to the crown, with the title of Khema Jāh!”
The King has five queens, although by Muhammadan law he ought only to have four. His Majesty of Oude possesses, to a considerable extent, that peculiarly masculine faculty of retaining the passion, and changing the object.