“Then I said to Abdullah, ‘Why do you say so? Verily, I had such a pain in my eyes that I thought they would have fallen out; and I went to a Jew; and when he applied a spell I got ease.’ Then Abdullah said, ‘This is nothing but the work of the devil; he was shaking your eyes with his hands, and when the spell was used he stopped. It will be sufficient for you to repeat such words as his Majesty used to say: O Cherisher of men! remove this punishment, and give ease; thou art the giver of health, there is no cure but from thee, the remover of sickness.’”
“A man said, ‘O messenger of God! verily the family of Jaspar are soon affected by the baneful influence of a malignant eye; may I use spells for them or not?’ His Majesty said, ‘Yes; for the eye has a complete influence; because, verily, if there was a thing to overcome fate, it most certainly would be a malignant eye.’”
Sons are of inestimable value; the birth of a daughter is almost a calamity; but even the mother blest with a son is not likely to remain long without a rival in the heart of her husband, since ninety-nine out of a hundred take new wives; besides the concubines given by the mother before marriage!
When a Muhammadan has sworn to separate himself from his wife, she retires to her own apartments, and does not behold her husband for four months; if they are not reconciled by the end of that time, all their ties are broken; the woman recovers her liberty, and receives, on quitting the house, the property settled on her by the contract of marriage. The girls follow the mother, the boys remain with the father. The husband cannot send her from his house until the expiration of the four months.
One day Colonel Gardner was ill; he was in the large garden without. The Begam begged me to go to him; she dared not leave the zenāna, even to assist her husband, who was so ill that his attendants had run in for aid! I went to him. After a time he was better, and wished to return to the house; he leaned on my shoulder for support, and led the way to the burial-ground of his son Allan, just without the garden. He sat down on a tomb, and we had a long conversation; “If it were not for old age, and the illness it brings on,” said he, “we should never be prepared, never ready to leave this world. I shall not last long; I shall not see you again, my betī; I wish to be buried by the side of my son; but I have spoken to James about it. The poor Begam, she will not survive me long; mark my words,—she will not say much, but she will take my death to heart, she will not long survive me: when her son Allan died she pounded her jewels in a mortar.” Shortly afterwards we returned to the house.
It may appear extraordinary to an European lady that the Begam, in her affliction, should have pounded her jewels in a mortar: ornaments are put aside in times of mourning; and jewellery with native ladies is highly prized, not merely for its own sake—that of adding to their beauty, but as a proof of the estimation in which they are held by their husbands. If a man be angry with his wife, he will take away her jewels, and not allow her to wear them; if pleased, it is his delight to cover her with the most valuable ornaments, precious stones set in pure gold. The quantity and value of the jewellery thus ascertains the rank to which a lady is entitled in this sort of domestic “order of merit;” the women pride themselves upon this adornment, and delight in jewellery as much as the men of England in stars and garters.
A lady wears slippers only out of doors, and puts them off on entering the house; the slippers are of various forms and patterns; some of them are square at the toes, and have iron heels. “She combs his head with the iron heel of her slipper,” is applied to a woman who domineers over her husband. The slippers for the ladies are of cloth, of the gayest colours, ornamented with embroidery of gold and silver, adorned with seed pearls, and with beetle wings, which are worked into flowers upon the cloth, and cover the long peak that turns up over the toes.
Stockings are never worn; but I have seen little coloured socks, made of the wool of Cashmir, worn at times during the cold season. The ankles of a native lady are decorated with massive rings, called kurrā; those worn by the Begam were of gold, thickly studded with jewels; the ladies had them of solid embossed gold; and for the slaves, they were of solid silver. These rings are generally hexagonal or octagonal, of an equal thickness throughout, and terminated by a knob at each end. The gold or the silver of which they are composed being pure metal, they may be opened sufficiently to be put on or off at pleasure; the ends being brought together by the pressure of the hand.
Another ornament consists of a great number of small bells, ghoonghroo, strung on a cord, and worn around the ankle, hanging to the heel. It is reckoned very correct to wear these tinkling bells; if a native wishes to praise a woman most highly, he says, “She has never seen the sun, she always wears bells.”
In lieu of this string of bells, another ornament is often worn, called pāezēb, which consists of heavy rings of silver, resembling a horse’s curb chain, but much broader, set with a fringe of small spherical bells, all of which tinkle at every motion of the limb; and all the toes are adorned with rings, some of which are furnished with little bells; such rings are called ghoonghroodar chhallā. The ladies wear their dresses, unless they be grand dresses for occasions of state, until they are dirty; perhaps for five or six days together; the dresses are then thrown away, and they put on new attire.