to her parents.

The father of the youth then resolves on sending a male agent in due form
to negotiate a marriage, unless he happens to be personally acquainted
with the girl's father; in which case the lady is desired to send her
female agent on the embassy, and the father of the youth speaks on the
subject in the meantime to the girl's father.

A very intimate friend of mine was seeking for a suitable match for her
son, and being much in her confidence, I was initiated in all the
mysteries and arrangements (according to Mussulmaun rule) of the affair
pending the marriage of her son.

The young lady to be sought (wooed we should have it), had been described
as amiable and pretty--advantages as much esteemed as her rank;--fortune
she had none worth mentioning, but it was what is termed in Indian society
a good and equal match. The overture was, therefore, to be made from the
youth's family in the following manner:

On a silver tray covered with gold brocade and fringed with silver, was
laid the youth's pedigree, traced by a neat writer in the Persian
character, on richly embossed paper ornamented and emblazoned with gold
figures. The youth being a Syaad, his pedigree was traced up to Mahumud,
in both paternal and maternal lines, and many a hero and Begum of their
noble blood filled up the space from the Prophet down to the youthful Meer
Mahumud, my friend's son.

On the tray, with the pedigree, was laid a nuzza, or offering of five gold
mohurs, and twenty-one (the lucky number) rupees; a brocaded cover,
fringed with silver, was spread over the whole, and this was conveyed by
the male agent to the young Begum's father. The tray and its contents are
retained for ever, if the proposal is accepted: if rejected, the parties
return the whole without delay, which is received as a tacit proof that
the suitor is rejected: no further explanation is ever given or required.

In the present instance the tray was detained, and in a few days after a
female from their family was sent to my friend's house to make a general
scrutiny of the zeenahnah and its inmates. This female was pressed to stay
a day or two, and in that time many important subjects underwent
discussion. The youth was introduced, and everything according with the
views entertained by both parties, the fathers met, and the marriage, it
was decided, should take place within a twelvemonth, when the young lady
would have accomplished her thirteenth year.

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