consideration. It is thus to some extent idyllic. At the same time, it may
be admitted that she was exceptionally fortunate in her friends. Her
sketch may be usefully compared with that of Mrs. Fanny Parks in her
charming book, _The Wanderings of a Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque_.
Mrs. Parks had the advantage of having acquired a literary knowledge of
Hindustani, while Mrs. Mir Hasan 'Ali, to judge from the way in
which she transliterates native words, can have been able to speak little
more than a broken patois, knew little of grammar, and was probably unable
to read or write the Arabic character. Colonel Gardner, who had wide and
peculiar experience, said to Mrs. Parks: 'Nothing can exceed the quarrels
that go on in the zenana, or the complaints the begams make against each
other. A common complaint is "Such a one has been practising witchcraft
against me". If the husband make a present to one wife, if it be only a
basket of mangoes, he must make the same exactly to all the other wives to
keep the peace. A wife, when in a rage with her husband, if on account of
jealousy, often says, "I wish I were married to a grass-cutter," i.e.
because a grass-cutter is so poor that he can only afford to have one
wife.'[9] Mrs. Parks from her own experience calls the zenana 'a place of
intrigue, and those who live within four walls cannot pursue a straight
path; how can it be otherwise, when so many conflicting passions are
called forth?'[10] She adds that 'Musalmani ladies generally forget
their learning when they grow up, or they neglect it. Everything that
passes without the four walls is repeated to them by their spies; never
was any place so full of intrigue, scandal, and chit-chat as a zenana.'[11]
When she visited the Delhi palace she remarks: 'As for beauty, in a whole
zenana there may be two or three handsome women, and all the rest
remarkably ugly.'[12] European officers at the present day have no
opportunities for acquiring a knowledge of the conditions of zenana life;
but from the rumours that reach them they would probably accept the views
of Mrs. Parks in preference to those of Mrs. Mir Hasan 'Ali.