the first chapter of the Koran.
[42] _Mitha, mithai_, 'sweetmeats'.
[43] Imam Mahdi, see pp. 72, 76.
[44] _Ziyarat_, see p. 15.
[45] Compare the oracular trees of the Greeks (Sir J.G. Frazer,
_Pausanias_, ii. 160). For legends of speaking trees in India,
W. Crooke, _Popular Religion and Folklore of N. India_,[2] ii. 89.
LETTER XII
The Zeenahnah.--Its interior described.--Furniture, decorations,
&c.--The Purdah (curtains).--Bedstead.--The Musnud (seat of
honour).--Mirrors and ornamental furniture disused.--Display on
occasions of festivity.--Observations on the Mussulmaun
Ladies.--Happiness in their state of seclusion.--Origin of secluding
females by Mahumud.--Anecdote.--Tamerlane's command prohibiting
females being seen in public.--The Palankeen.--Bearers.--Their
general utility and contentedness of disposition.--Habits peculiar
to Mussulmaun Ladies.--Domestic arrangements of a Zeenahnah.--Dinner
and its accompanying observances.--The Lota and Lugguns.--The
Hookha.--Further investigation of the customs adopted in Zeenahnahs.
Before I introduce the ladies of a Mussulmaun zeenahnah to your notice, I
propose giving you a description of their apartments.
Imagine to yourself a tolerably sized quadrangle, three sides of which is
occupied by habitable buildings, and the fourth by kitchens, offices,
lumber rooms, &c.; leaving in the centre an open court-yard. The habitable
buildings are raised a few steps from the court; a line of pillars forms
the front of the building, which has no upper rooms; the roof is flat, and
the sides and back without windows, or any aperture through which air can
be received. The sides and back are merely high walls forming an enclosure,
and the only air is admitted from the fronts of the dwelling-place facing
the court-yard. The apartments are divided into long halls, the extreme
corners having small rooms or dark closets purposely built for the
repository of valuables or stores; doors are fixed to these closets, which
are the only places I have seen with them in a zeenahnah or mahul[1]
(house or palace occupied by females); the floor is either of beaten earth,
bricks, or stones; boarded floors are not yet introduced.
As they have neither doors nor windows to the halls, warmth or privacy is
secured by means of thick wadded curtains, made to fit each opening
between the pillars. Some zeenahnahs have two rows of pillars in the halls
with wadded
|