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WITHIN THE PURDAH
ALSO
Hn tbe Zenana Ibomes
of Unfcian jprinccs
AND
Iberoes anfc Iberoines
of Zion
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BEING THE PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS OF A MEDICAL
MISSIONARY IN INDIA
By 7
S. ARMSTRONG-HOPKINS, M.D.
FORMERLY PHYSICIAN IN CHARGE TO THE WOMAN'S HOSPITAL, DISPENSARY,
AND TRAINING SCHOOL FOR NURSES, OF HYDERABAD, SINDH,
UNDER ENGLISH GOVERNMENT APPOINTMENT
NEW YORK : EATON & MAINS
CINCINNATI : CURTS & JENNINGS
Copyright by
EATON & MAINS,
1898.
DEDICATED TO
TCcv. MtlUam XconarD Brmstrong, /IR.2>.
A tribute pure of filial love
Unto my honored sire ;
Who taught my trembling feet to climb,
My spirit to aspire;
Who bade me reach a helping hand
To all whom I might raise
From darksome paths of sin and vice,
To tread in wisdom's ways;
Who bade me speak the truth, nor fear
What mortal man might say ;
With soul transparent all, and pure,
To humbly watch and pray.
PREFACE
D EAR FRIENDS, I know I have clone a very
unfashionable thing- in harrowing up your
feelings by the recital of some heartrending facts.
Facts, indeed, they are, for each particular case
which I have cited is a real case. In every instance
I have had some particular patient in mind, and
have given you the exact details and history of that
particular patient ; and yet each of these particular
patients is but a sample of many similar cases such
as I treated again and again during my dispensary
life. I know that returned missionaries love to
cite instances of natives coming from distant vil-
lages to the mission inquiring the way of salvation.
They love to describe revival efforts in country
towns, where, perhaps, the whole village has been
brought to the foot of the cross. All this can be
done. All this is true. The cause of God is making
wonderful strides in that strange, dark land. I, too,
could tell of similar cases of conversions from dark-
est heathendom ; even of Hindu priests who have
left all and chosen affliction with the people of God
rather than to continue the worship of idols; but,
dear friends, I have chosen to tell you these more
unpleasant facts. I have done it deliberately and
“with malice aforethought.” At every opportu-
7
8
PREFACE
nity I desire to make known these facts to the
people of my own country. Why? Because I
believe in them ; I believe in the chivalry of my
own countrymen. Because I believe in my coun-
trywomen and in the children of my native land.
Because I am convinced that the religion of Jesus
Christ, as professed and lived by the people of this
blessed country, is not a farce ; is not a mere gar-
ment intended for Sunday wear, which is put off
and on at discretion. I believe that you who pro-
fess to love the Lord Jesus Christ, who have taken
his name upon yourselves, do partake of his nature
who left his Father’s throne and his Father’s house
and came to earth — the great Medical Missionary —
to help, and to heal, and to save his people. When
I was in India, and from day to day witnessed such
horrible sights, and heard from the pale, trembling
lips of wee sufferers heartrending stories such as
I have here depicted, I resolved that, if God spared
my life and permitted me again to visit my own
native land, I would raise the purdah of these
zenana homes ; I would acquaint the people of this
country with the real condition of the women and
children of that dark continent. For I am sure
that you need but for one short hour to gaze upon
the wretchedness, to look down, as I have looked,
into the depths of these dark places where women
and children, in utter helpnessness, crouch in pain and
woe such as beggar description — that you need only
to see with another’s eyes — in order to stir your Chris-
tian hearts to do something to relieve ; something
PREFACE
9
to save. I believed, and I do believe, that for you
to know is to do. That you who have felt the thrill
which comes from the heart of the All Father in
the secret place of prayer, who have reached up and
taken hold of the omnipotent hand of God in your
secret closets, need but to know the facts in order
to run with swift feet to deliver, in order to reach
out glad, helping hands to lift up, in order to be
willing to sacrifice somewhat of your luxuries,
somewhat of your comforts, somewhat, perhaps, of
those things which you call the necessities of life,
in order to do your part toward sending the Gospel
message to those people who sit in darkness and
see no light ; remembering that inasmuch as you
do it unto one of the least of these, you do it unto
him.
Do you remind me that I have already confessed
that medicine and surgery and all that the English
government can accomplish by establishing great
hospitals throughout India are of comparatively lit-
tle avail, and cannot fully meet the needs of these
people, because the tortures arising from mental
and spiritual conditions are so much greater than
any physical suffering? That their customs and
barbarous practices are so deeply rooted that nothing
can overthrow them? True; but, dear friends, I am
glad to add that there is one remedy — one remedy —
and only one. It is the blessed Gospel of Jesus
Christ, and it is sufficient. Send it to them. Send
out your missionaries with God’s word. Let them
go to these suffering women and children, and tell
10
PREFACE
the story of the love of God and of the love of
Christ for them. Their hearts are aching and
bleeding and famishing for love. In their lives
they have never known it ; never felt it. The)’
have no hope of anything better beyond the grave.
Send this glad, beautiful message; send it quickly.
They will embrace it ; they will receive it ; they
will forsake all for it. And when once they do ac-
cept this blessed Gospel message all these shackles
of superstition, heathen beliefs, prejudices, and
barbarous practices will fall off, and they will arise
in all the emancipated freedom and liberty of glad
children of God. Nothing but this can meet the
case. God’s word is a sufficient remedy. Won’t
you take it? Won’t you send it? Won’t you sac-
rifice something in order to do this? O, do it! In
the name of God Almighty, in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, whom you love and revere, I
entreat you to send the Gospel to these poor women
and children, and to send it quickly!
SINDH
The gloom that here is found
Is like to that of Hell ;
While ghastly specters ’round
The bravest spirit quell.
O God, thou Source of light.
This darkness all dispel;
Drive back the heathen's night,
Till they thy praise shall swell.
Amen.
CONTENTS
BOOK I
Within the Purdah
The Native of Hindustan — Attributes and Characteristics — In-
correct Statement in Parliament of Religions — Seeming Truthful-
ness — Care for Animal Life Explained — Government Hospitals and
Equipments — Sindh — Hyderabad — Hospital Building — Patients —
Caravan Journey — Dispensary Work — Purdah Garment — Baby
Patient — Flattening the Head — Piercing the Ears and Nose —
Mother Love — Child Marriage— Unmarried Girls — Betrothals —
Bangles — Her Husband’s Bank — The Mother-in-law — “ Tell Me
the Truth ” — The Small-cause Court — The Daughter-in-law — No
Real Child Life — The Starving Wife of a Prince — “I Do Not
Wish to Get Well” 17
BOOK II
In the Zenana Homes of Indian Princes
The Taj Mahal — The Tomb of the Dead and the Tomb of the
Living Wife— The Zenana Woman and Her Purdah Home — The
Zenana Woman — Mr. Syed Mohammed, Aide-de-camp to His Ex-
cellency Nawab Khurshed Jah — Emissaries from His Highness
Saght Sing, the Maharajah of Bhinai District — From Bombay to
Ajmere — A Curious Medico-legal Consultation — A Professional
Visit to the Harem of a Mohammedan Prince — The Nawab’s Eu-
ropean Palace — His Excellency Nawab Khurshed Jah — Her Excel-
12
CONTENTS
lency the Begam Sahib — Another Strange Medical Consultation
— The Nawab’s Six Palaces — A Diet of Costly Gems — His Excel-
lency Devvan Luchman Dass, ex-Prime Minister of Kashmir— The
Wives and Daughter of Dewan Luchman Dass— Mrs. Luchman
Dass, the Rich Hindu Widow — The Peer — The Peer’s Daughter
— A Prophecy and a Prayer 85
BOOK III
Heroes and Heroines of Zion
Who are They? — The Methodist Missionary of the Parent
Board — The Servant Question — The Assistant Missionary — The
Missionary Evangelist — Missionaries of the Woman's Foreign Mis-
sionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church — The Mission-
ary Teacher of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society — The
Zenana Missionary of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society —
The Medical Missionary of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary
Society 179
CONCLUSION
By the Rev. George F. Hopkins, A.M.
A Poem
. 247
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Saleni Armstrong-Hopkins Frontispiece
The Punjapole Asylum for Animals 22
Her Excellency the Countess of Dufferin 25
A Purdah Carriage, with Curtain Removed 30
Woman Patient in her Silk Costume 35
Woman Patient in her Purdah Garment 35
Wealthy Hindu Bridegroom and his Child-bride 49
A Little Daughter-in-law Scouring the Degchas 65
A Young Hindu Prince 73
A Wealthy Mohammedan Nawab, or Prince 73
“ My Esther,” Mrs. Mary Esther Isaac Ilahi Baksh 77
Facsimile of Legal Agreement 97
Her Highness Sarupkanwar Bai 107
His Excellency Nawab Khurshed Jah 117
His Excellency Dewan Luchman Dass and his Daughter 137
Mrs. Molie Luchman Dass in her Kashmeri Costume 141
Mrs. Dalie Luchman Dass in her Punjabi Costume 141
Rare Trophies 150
South India Conference 178
Butler Preparing Tea 184
The Ayah 184
13
14
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Three Zenana Missionaries with Servants and Two of Miss
Levermore’s Little Adopted Native Children, and Chung,
Dena’s Son 184
Rev. S. P. Jacobs with the Boys of One of his Native Schools. 187
An Indian Mud Fire-place with Degcha 194
Domingo, the Cook 194
The New Missionary and her Moonshee 210
A Mohammedan Moonshee 213
The Girls’ Boarding School of the Woman’s Foreign Mission-
ary Society, Bombay, India 220
A Wealthy High-caste Zenana Lady of Bombay 227
A Zenana Missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church and
her Assistants in Bombay 236
BOOK I
WITHIN THE PURDAH
“And the King shall answer and say unto them.
Verily I say unto you. Inasmuch as ye have done it
unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have
done it unto me .” — Matthew xxv, 40 .
BOOK I
WITHIN THE PURDAH
T HE native of Hindustan — the Hindu, the Mo-
hammedan, the Parsee, the Eurasian, but, per-
haps, more particularly the Hindu — has somehow
acquired a reputation throughout Europe, and
doubtless in America as well, for possessing by
nature all those attributes and characteristics which
we in this Christian land have learned to regard
as emanating from the Spirit of God alone, and
which we expect to find more often and more fully
exemplified in the lives of those who live nearest to
the Lord Jesus Christ and who partake most of
his nature. The Hindu is supposed to be, of all
creatures on earth, the most generous, the most
kind-hearted, the most gentle, the most sympa-
thetic, and the most unselfish. After living for
nearly seven years in India I must tell you that the
reverse of this is true. The great principle which
we, as Christians, were taught at our mother’s knee
holds true. Charity, kindness, unselfishness,
thoughtful consideration for others, love, and ten-
derness, emanate in large measure from God, and
from him only, and those who live nearest to him and
walk most closely in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus
Christ do most fully exemplify these characteristics.
18
WITHIN THE PURDAH
It has been said that among the many languages
spoken by the peoples of Hindustan there is no such
word as home, in the sense in which we understand
it ; that among all the languages spoken there is no
such word as love, in the sense in which we know it.
I cannot vouch for the truth of this, as I am not ac-
quainted with the languages of India, but I do
know that among all the heathen people of that
country there is no such place as home, as we un-
derstand it ; there is no such sentiment as love, as
we feel it. And j’et it is not difficult to understand
how the Hindu has gained the reputation of being
all that we have mentioned — kind-hearted, gentle,
loving, etc.
Those who attended the Parliament of Religions
at our great Columbian Exposition may have heard
some educated, proud Brahman declare before the
civilized nations of the world that the Hindu reli-
gion is better than the Christian religion, because
it inculcates such kindness of heart and gentleness
of nature as to render its follower incapable of
stretching forth his hand to slay any living creature.
This same proud Brahman, true to his training in
deceit and misrepresentation, did not further ex-
plain why the Hindu refuses to slay even the creep-
ing thing which crosses his pathway or the deadly
serpent which imperils his life. At the first glance
his statement has a seeming truthfulness. There
is a trite saying to the effect that a half truth, or a
lie which contains a partial truth, is the worst kind
of a lie. It is true that a Hindu will not, under
WITHIN THE PURDAH
19
any circumstance, put any living thing to death.
If you lived in India, and a venomous serpent,
whose sting is death in twenty minutes — and with-
out remedy — were to cross your threshold, you
might call in vain upon your Hindu servant to
slay that serpent. He would fall at your feet and
declare his willingness to serve you to the utmost
of his ability, but would beg you to forgive him for
refusing to kill the serpent which threatens your
life.
There are three explanations of the foregoing
fact, the first of which seems almost to bear out our
educated Brahman in his statement concerning the
superiority of the Hindu as compared with the
Christian religion. In the religious history of the
Hindu, after a reign of terror in which the priests
are said to have “multiplied religious ceremonies
and made ritual the soul of worship,” and when
“ sacrifice assumed still more and more exaggerated
forms, becoming more protracted, more expen-
sive, more bloody — a hecatomb of victims was
but a small offering,” came a time when “the
tension seemed too great, and the bow snapped.
Buddhism arose. We may call this remarkable
system the product of the age — an inevitable re-
bellion against intolerable sacerdotalism ; and yet
we must not overlook the importance of the very
distinct and lofty personality of Buddha (Sakya
Muni) as a power molding it into shape.” Buddha
effected a vast revolution in Indian thought. “My
law,” said he, “ is a law of mercy for all.” In the
20
WITHIN THE PURDAH
forefront of his religious system he put certain
great fundamental principles of morality ; he made
religion consist in duty rather than in rites, and
reduced duty, for the most part, to mercy and kind-
ness toward all living creatures. This did away
with all slaughter of animals. The people, having
grown weary of priestcraft and ritualism, gladly
embraced the teachings of this great reformer.
This religious system was, in fact, a rebound or re-
action from the excessive cruelties which had pre-
ceded it.
The second explanation is found in the fact that
the Hindu worships a large number of animals,
and would not naturally be disposed to slay the
object of his worship. It is a common thing to see
a Hindu doing poojah (worship) to the ants by the
wayside, and bringing flour or boiled rice with
which to feed them. They are his gods. He also
worships the serpent, the monkey, the bull, and
many other animals.
The third explanation may be traced as follows :
The Hindu religion leads its follower to believe
in the transmigration of souls; therefore a Hin-
du will not kill the ant which crosses his path in
the street, or the deadly serpent, or the venomous
scorpion, or the rabid dog which has torn the limbs
of his own child, not because of kind-heartedness
on the part of this same Hindu, but because by so
doing he fears he may slay his deceased mother-in-
law, or great aunt, or second cousin, or some other
near and dear relative whose spirit is at this time
The Punjapole Asylum for Animals
WITHIN THE PURDAH
23
inhabiting the body of this serpent, scorpion, or
rabid dog; and -for this great crime he may, in
some future state of existence, be doomed to occupy
the body of this same creature which he has wickedly
put to death.
One of the practical outgrowths of this religious
belief may be seen in the city of Bombay, in the
establishment of an asylum or place of refuge
where all diseased, maimed, decrepit, aged, or
otherwise dangerous animals may be confined.
Just as the English government provides places of
refuge for unfortunate mortals afflicted with lep-
rosy, cholera, smallpox, and insanity, so have the
high-caste Brahmans of Bombay established such
an asylum or hospital for animals. However,
one can hardly speak of it correctly as either
an asylum or a hospital, because there is no effort
made to restore these inmates to health, to prolong
their lives, or to promote their comfort. It is
merely a place of banishment where offensive or
harmful domestic animals are kept until they die, in
order that no Brahman may be compelled in self-
protection to put any of these creatures to death,
and so bring a curse upon his own soul. This same
Brahman will beat his domestic animals most cru-
elly starve and torture them in many ways, thus
exhibiting his lack of kindness. Indeed, you need
only to acquaint yourself with the inner home-life
of the Hindu, you need only to pass in behind the
purdah of his zenana home and behold his conduct
toward the members of his own household, in order
24
WITHIN THE PURDAH
to know for yourself that my first proposition is
true, and that the Hindu is of all people the most
cowardly and the most cruel ; for a cruel man is
always a coward, and a coward is always cruel. In
order that you may know the Hindu personally,
become acquainted with the members of his family,
and understand the principles which govern his
life, I shall invite you to accompany me to the
English government hospital of Hyderabad, Sindh.
You know about the splendid work that has been
done for India by the English government through
the efforts of that beautiful woman, the Countess of
Dufferin, in establishing government hospitals in
all the great cities of that empire. Beautiful hos-
pitals they are; thoroughly equipped with all
modern improvements, conveniences, instruments,
and apparatus such as you find in the best English
hospitals of to-day, having an efficient staff of
officers — servants, nurses, compounder or druggist,
clerk, interpreter, house surgeon — and at the head
of all, the English or American lady physician
in chai’ge. It was to such a position as this in the
Woman’s Hospital, Dispensary, and Training School
for Nurses, of Hyderabad, Sindh, that I was called in
January, 1893.
Before proceeding further allow me to state that
most of the fashions, heathen customs, prejudices,
and barbarous practices which I shall here describe
are peculiar to the district of Sindh, and would not
hold true if applied to the people of Bombay, Calcutta,
Madras, or perhaps to any other people of India.
Her Excellency the Countess of Dufferin
WITHIN THE PURDAH
27
Sindh is a province in the northwestern part of
British India, having an area of 5 6,632 square
miles and, in 1891, a population of 2,900,000.
Hyderabad is the historical capital of Sindh and
chief city of that province. It stands three and a
half miles east of the left bank of the Indus River.
Its population in 1891 was 58,048, of whom 23,000
were Mohammedans, the remainder being, for the
most part, Hindus ; unlike the great native city of
Hyderabad, Deccan, which is purely Mohammedan,
and a walled city.
Our hospital building is a fine brick structure of
but one story, surrounded by a very deep veranda,
which is shut in from outside gaze by broad pil-
lars, with close lattice work intervening, and over
all the Indian chick — -a sort of curtain made from
split bamboo or reed grass. To this hospital and
dispensary come patients representing all classes
and castes, rich and poor, Hindu, Mohammedan,
and Eurasian. Not only do they come from Hy-
derabad city, but also from the country villages
round about, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty miles
distant. Some of the poorer classes from these
country villages come walking. I have often seen
a little frail woman, weak and ill, who had walked
a distance of forty miles from her country village
to the hospital — not alone ; one never goes alone
through the jungles of India. It would not be safe
to do so on account of the wild beasts which prowl
about and the many venomous and deadly serpents
which infest the plains.
28
WITHIN THE PURDAH
It generally happens in a country village that
some peer or wealthy native — one of the aristocracy
of the place — has a son who is ill. Perhaps he
would scarcely undertake such a journey for the
sake of a wife or a daughter, but his son, whose life
is far more valuable than the life of any woman
could be, is ill. There are no hospitals in the
country villages, and no English physicians, or even
properly educated native doctors. He determines,
therefore, to make a trip to the government hospital
at Hyderabad, and forthwith proceeds to gather
together all the sick people in his village until a
large company has arranged to make the journey.
Those who are most ill, sons, wives, and daughters
of the wealthier members of the community, make
the journey on camels, while the poorer people,
men, women, and children, and also, perhaps, a
large number of strong men, even though of the
wealthier class, and high caste, will travel on foot.
It is a great sight to see such a caravan cn route
from some distant village to Hyderabad city. The
camels, with their slow and measured tread, you
may see in the distance, marching single file. The
head camel is ridden by one man, who holds one
end of a little string not much larger than the cord
with which your groceries are bound. The further
end of this string is attached to the outer swell of a
little wooden nose ring, very much the shape of a
thread spool with a very thin stem, which passes
through the right nostril of the great docile beast.
This nose ring and slender cotton cord serve the
A Purdah Carriage, with Curtain Removed
WITHIN THE PURDAH
31
purpose of halter, bridle, and all. A slight tight-
enine of this cord will indicate to the camel that
the rider wishes to turn, and a tap on his great
neck will serve to guide him in the right direction.
The second camel has a similar nose ring, to which
is attached a similar cord, this cord being tied to
the tail of the first camel ; and thus all the twenty-
five or fifty camels are tied together, noses and
tails, and all with a string so slender that you would
think a toss of the head would break it. All the
camels except the first one described, which leads
the others, are loaded with the women, children,
and sick people of the company, while their robust
friends and neighbors follow after on foot. The
journey is begtm late in the afternoon, as soon as
the heat of the day begins to abate ; and they travel
all night, until the morning sun grows so intensely
hot as to render further travel hazardous to their
lives. Then, if possible, they find a tree with broad,
expanded branches, in the shade of which they rest
until evening, when they start on again. So it is
that early, early in the morning, often before the
dawn of day, such a caravan as this arrives at our
hospital in Hyderabad. At a signal or a word from
the man who sits upon the first camel all these
gentle brutes kneel down in the fashion peculiar to
themselves, slowly lowering the closed carriages,
or baskets, which are loaded with human freight.
Then four men — fathers, husbands, or brothers of
the occupants of this particular carriage — approach
the second camel, and with two long poles attached
32
WITHIN THE PURDAH
to its floor raise it (the carriage) to the level of their
shoulders, and thus carry it to the great door which
opens into the deep veranda of our hospital. Here
they leave it, just outside the threshold, and run
away and hide themselves, while four of our Chris-
tian nurses from the hospital go out and carry the
precious burden inside of the veranda, closing the
door after them. Here the carriage door is opened,
and the occupants are taken out and allowed to rest
on the floor of this great veranda until the hour ar-
rives for opening the dispensary. When this load
is properly settled the carriage is put outside the
door, and other men bring the next carriage in the
caravan of camels, and so on, until all the camels
have been unloaded and their occupants deposited
on our hospital veranda, where they are quite se-
cluded from public gaze, as befoi'e intimated, by
the broad pillars, close lattice work, and bamboo
chicks. Of course the hospital is a purdah or
zenana hospital, no men being allowed inside its
gates.
At half past nine o’clock A. M. the physician in
charge arrives in her carriage, and then the dispen-
sary work begins. Passing through a large folding
door in the center of the great front of the hospital,
we find ourselves in a large and pleasant consult-
ing room. The ceiling is very lofty, and from its
center is suspended a huge punkah , which swings
from side to side, keeping the sultry air in motion
and rendering the room comfortably cool. The
members of the hospital staff have arranged them-
WITHIN THE PURDAH
33
selves in rows on either side of the space between
the door and the doctor’s table, and bow low in
respectful salaams as we pass; afterward standing
about in their pure white sarces, gracefully draped
in Indian fashion, respectfully awaiting orders.
Parina, the native interpreter, a Christian woman,
stands near by, ready to interpret into English any
of the many tongues which may be spoken by the
various patients who have gathered from all direc-
tions. The side door, leading into the outer hall,
is opened, and one patient at a time, each taking
her turn, passes into the clerk’s office, where her
namd, approximate age, and any particulars which
can be gleaned concerning her personal history and
illness are recorded. These people never know
the date of their birth, but they approximate their
age by certain great epochs. This one says, “I
was so big,” indicating a height of two feet, “at
the time of the mutiny,” and so on. Having regis-
tered, the patients are admitted, in twos and threes,
to the consulting room. I shall endeavor to make
them known to you, one at a time, as they come
into our presence.
A tiny woman, not larger than a child of ten in
this country, makes her way slowly from the clerk’s
office. She is shrouded in her long white purdah
garment, which consists of a cap about the shape
of a gentleman’s smoking or skull cap, pure white,
and hand embroidered. Into the lower edge of
this cap is gathered a full flounce of unbleached
muslin, which falls to the ground, and even trails
34
WITHIN THE PURDAH
about her, being as long in front as behind. Thus
her entire person is wholly concealed from view.
If you separate the thick folds near the rim of the
cap, about where the eyes are supposed to be, you
will find two small holes in the muslin. They are
about one inch long and two thirds of an inch in
width, and are veiled by a close net, something like
mosquito netting, only of coarser texture. Through
these tiny openings the patient is supposed to be
able to see sufficiently to avoid a fall. Of course
one from without cannot see the face nor even the
eyes of the patient through these small and closely-
screened openings. As she comes near our inter-
preter, with tender persuasion, seeks to remove
this heavy garment ; but the little patient is timid
and shrinking, and resists her overtures. At
length, however, she herself slowly gathers the
heavy folds together and raises them a little at a
time, until from underneath she is able to peer
out and look about. She does this to make sure
that there are no boys or men folk in the room.
Later on she is persuaded to allow the nurses to re-
move this heavy and oppressive garment, and when
this is done she stands before us in her many-
colored pure silk garments, which are so gracefully
adjusted and so artistically arranged, in point of
coloring and in every other detail, as to render her
a beautiful picture to look upon.
So tiny and wan is she, so emaciated and sad of
face, that you judge her to be the patient ; but your
mind is presently disabused of this thought, for she
Woman patient in her silk costume of many colors Woman patient in her long white purdah garment
WITHIN THE PURDAH
37
steps forward and, unwrapping from the folds of
her garment an infant, she lays it on the table be-
fore you. Its arms and legs are tightly bound
down, stiff and straight, by strong strips of cotton
cloth. This is the custom throughout the district
of Sindh. Be it a boy or a girl, be it Hindu or
Mohammedan, all are thus strapped during the first
months of their existence ; so that the slight exer-
cise, relaxation, and rest which an untrammeled
baby naturally gets from tossing its limbs about is
denied to infants here. These strips of cloth are
tied so tightly about the soft, emaciated limbs that
3 t ou can almost bury your finger in the groove caused
by this pressure. But it is not for this condition we
are consulted. The child-mother turns the infant
on its side, and you see that the whole back of the
head has been crushed until it is quite flat. It is
swollen, hot, inflamed, and in the center of the
head, at the back, there is a running sore about the
size of a silver half-dollar. If you do not know the
cause of this condition, your interpreter will explain
that every child born of heathen parents in the
district of Sindh, boy or girl, Hindu or Moham-
medan, is, immediately after birth, placed upon a
solid stone bed. Its head rests lower than its
trunk, and in order that the child may not slide off
headwise and be injured a little ledge is arranged
as a headpiece. During the day, every two or
three hours, some member of the father-in-law’s
family, with the strong palm of the hand, presses
the soft, mobile little head against this hard stone,
38
WITHIN THE PURDAH
until it becomes quite flat at the back, the forehead
protrudes, and above each ear large protuberances
appear, almost resembling horns. This practice
goes on during all the early months of the infant’s
life, until the head remains in this distorted shape.
All this for beauty’s sake. These ignorant people
imagine that they know better how to form a beau-
tiful human head than does God Almighty. It is
the fashion in that part of India, and must be fol-
lowed — even though the practice result in the death
of the child, which is often the case. It seemed to
me that every child must die as a result of such
treatment. The whole thing was at first incredible
to me, and I asked my nurses to call in the serv-
ants, and the children of the servants, and uncover
their heads, that I might examine them ; men’s
heads in India being always covered with their
pugris , and the heads of women and girls by their
sarccs. To my astonishment, I found all their heads
were perfectly flat at the back and protruding above
the ears and in front, as above described.
In the case of this little patient, we will give the
infant into the hands of our surgical nurse, asking
her to syringe the wound with some disinfectant
solution, place a little pillow of surgeon’s cotton
over and around the wound, bandage the head
nicely, as she knows how to do, and bring the
child back to us. This done, we restore the little
one to its mother’s arms, giving strict injunction
not again to place it upon its stone bed, and not in
any case to remove the bandage, but to bring it
WITHIN THE PURDAH
39
back again to-morrow to have the wound dressed.
The following day, however, she does not return,
nor the next, nor for several weeks. When, how-
ever, she does return we discover that the band-
ages have been removed, and perceive by the con-
dition of the wound that the crushing process has
been persisted in, despite the fever which it has
caused and the evident debility of the child. We
begin to upbraid the little woman. We tell her
that she is no mother, that it is a cruel, unnatural
thing for her thus to torture her little one, that she
has no love for her babe. At these words the tiny
mother, with a gesture expressive of utter helpless-
ness and a look of entreaty, exclaims: “O, Doctor
Sahiba, what can I do? It is our custom ! And then,”
she adds, in a still more helpless way, ‘ ‘ I have
a cruel mother-in-law.” So it is that, though the
child- mother might perhaps spare her infant this
torture, there are other members of the family who
would insist upon carrying out the custom of their
people. Of course the little head is dressed again
as before, and the patient and mother sent away
with stronger orders than ever ; but she never
again returns — not at least for the sake of this
child. Some months later she does come back to
consult us in regard to an older child, and when we
interrogate her concerning her baby she tells us in a
sad way that it is dead.
The practices above described, of binding the
limbs and crushing the heads of infants born to
heathen parents residing in the district or province
3
40
WITHIN THE PURDAH
of Sindh, are, as has already been intimated, in-
flicted upon both male and female children, but if
the little one is so unfortunate as to be born a girl
in this district, there are many tortures which she
must endure from which her brother would be
exempt.
Our next patient is also an infant in the arms of
her young mother. Upon examination we find the
little limbs tightly banded down and the head
crushed, as in the former instance, but in addition
to this the wee ears have been pierced every eighth
of an inch all around the rims, and dirty-looking,
black woolen strings have been inserted in the
freshly-wounded tender flesh. The nose, also, both
right and left nostrils and the center portion, has
been pierced, and the woolen strings have so irri-
tated the wounds that both the nose and the ears
have become enormously swollen, hot, and ulcer-
ated to such an extent as to render the child
feverish and ill. These running sores — shall I say
it to refined ears? — are full of maggots, which add a
fresh torture to the sufferings already too great. If
we are new in Sindh, and have not yet learned how
utterly useless it is to fight against these iron-clad
customs, we will probably follow our first impera-
tive impulse — clip the strings and remove them
from the ears and nostrils ; afterward passing the
child to the nurse with instructions to syringe with
disinfectant solution and dress the wounds properly.
This done, we give instructions to the mother to
allow the bandages to remain and to bring back the
WITHIN THE PURDAH
41
child to the dispensary to-morrow. The mother
does not return with the child for many days.
When, finally, she does return she approaches
timidly and with apparent shamefacedness. She
does not carry her infant, but her mother-in-law
follows on behind with the babe in her arms, while
the little mother comes toward us, bowing at every
step until her forehead almost touches the floor.
This formality indicates that she acknowledges her
own great inferiority, that she feels herself to be
little and mean and contemptible — less than the
dust under your feet, a very slave ; while you, in
her own words, are her ma bap (mother and father),
great, and high, and lifted up, with authority to
command or crush her at your pleasure ; neverthe-
less she comes to you with a petition. As she
draws near we will await her further formality.
Standing before us, she takes the corner of her
sarcc, wraps it around her neck, and holds it tightly
with her two hands. This to us, suggests hanging,
and it is a sort of mental hanging, for it means ex-
actly the same as the low salaam above described.
Standing now with bowed head, and joining the
tips of index fingers, she begins to stroke the
bridge of her nose. This formality, also, has the
same significance as the two preceding ones.
Finally you grow impatient, and express your will-
ingness to hear her petition at once. The mother-
in-law now comes forward and lays the infant on
the table before you. The bandages have been
removed from the head, black strings have again
42
WITHIN THE PURDAH
been inserted, and the child is in a worse condition,
if possible, than on the occasion of the first visit.
The little mother now interposes and begs that you
do not again remove the strings from her baby’s
ears, but that you give some lotion or ointment
which can be applied, and which will cause the
wounds to heal, while the strings remain in their
places ; adding, with all the emphasis which she is
capable of expressing, that, if you remove them, she
cannot again bring the child to the dispensary, be-
cause her family will have other strings inserted
immediately upon her return. The strings, she
declares, must remain, because her little girl is soon
to be married, and then ornaments will be inserted
in place of the strings. The native Indian has a
conviction that the English ointment is an infallible
cure-all. No matter what the disease, no matter
how terrible the condition, if an Indian can procure
a little English ointment, a perfect cure is certain.
In this case, if we are wise — if we have been in this
part of India for long, and understand how per-
fectly impossible it is to overthrow the customs of
these people and how futile all efforts to prevent
the carrying out of them — we will accede to the
petition of the little mother. We will not again
cut the strings from the baby’s ears and nostrils,
but we will have the wounds syringed with a disin-
fectant solution and give her some lotion or
powder or ointment, to apply from time to time,
which will facilitate the healing of the wounds,
even while the strings remain. By these means
WITHIN THE PURDAH
43
we shall be able at least to relieve the sufferings of
our little patient, though we cannot wholly remove
them ; whereas, if we were to cut the strings, the
mother would never again return to the dispensary
with her child, and it would be allowed to suffer on
without relief.
If this little girl baby is so unfortunate, as we
would consider her — so fortunate, as the natives of
India would consider — as to have an elder brother,
she will be left upon her stone bed from morning
until evening, and from evening until morning.
She will be fed upon goat’s milk if her parents are
wealthy ; if poor, rice, chapaii, or any food that it
is convenient to give. If she cry, and thus annoy
the family, she will be dosed with opium, while her
brother— two, three, four, five, or six years of age,
perhaps a large boy nearly as tall as his mother —
will sit astride his mother’s hip and receive from
her the natural nourishment which God Almighty
provided for the young infant. Whatever the
mother is doing, however laborious her task, she
can never be rid of this great, strong child, which
hangs continually upon her side. If she put him
down for a moment, he will kick and scream,
tear her hair, scratch and bite her until she is
obliged to take him again upon her thigh. She
dare not strike him or punish him in any way, for
he is her husband’s son. If you question her as to
this strange partiality between her two children, she
will reply, “ O, the baby is only a girl, but this —
my son! ”
44
WITHIN THE PURDAH
You will naturally judge from this that Indian
parents love their sons and hate their daughters.
I believe this, also, to be a mistake. Where there
is any love it is felt just as much for the daughter
as for the son. I have seen this exemplified in
many cases. I remember one instance in which
the little daughter had fallen from an upstairs ve-
randa and received fatal injuries. The mother told
us about it with many tears, and my interpreter
said to her: “ What does it matter? She was only
a girl!” The mother replied, “Yes, she was only
a girl; but then what about my mother-heart?”
The fact is that where you find heathen people who
know nothing about Christ, nothing about the one
great God whose name is Love, nothing about his
revealed truth, which teaches love, there is very
little love to be found ; and this difference in the
treatment of the daughter and son comes through
no partiality for the son, on his own account, but
from a purely business and mercenary principle.
The son, from the day of his birth to the day of
his burial or burning (for, if he be a Mohammedan,
his remains will be buried ; if a Hindu, they will be
burned), is a source of great honor and large income
to his parents. Indeed, among these people the
birth of a son is considered to be well-nigh equiva-
lent to receiving a fortune ; whereas the daughter,
from the day of her birth to the day of her burial
or burning, is not only a source of tremendous ex-
pense — an expense which never ceases while she
lives — but she is also a source of possible disgrace
WITHIN THE PURDAH
45
to her family and caste. If she be not married
before she arrive at the age of twelve, she can never
marry, as no native man will marry a girl over that
age, and her parents and all their family are irrep-
arably disgraced. Indeed, nothing can happen to
a native family which will bring them such disgrace
as this. The parents are supposed to have failed
in their duty to their child. A girl thus unmarried
is in a worse condition than a widow. She is
stripped of her jewels and silken apparel ; a single
scant garment of coarse texture is all that is allowed
to her, and her beautiful hair is cut. She is not al-
lowed to mingle with the other members of the
family during any festivity or anniversary occasion.
If there be rejoicings in the home at the birth or
marriage of a son, or on account of any other good
fortune, she may not participate in it. She must
sit alone in a little dark place nursing her miseries,
and never showing her face to mother, father,
brother, sister, or guest. Even on ordinary occa-
sions she may not show her face in the morning to
any member of the family until they have each and
all looked into other faces of happier fortune ; for
she is supposed to be cursed by the gods, and for
one to behold her face before seeing the faces of
others would, in the opinion of natives, invariably
bring bad luck. She does the drudgery of her
father’s household, and receives kicks and abuses
from any and all of its members, and often upon
the slightest provocation. Should she fall ill, no
physician is consulted and no effort made to restore
46
WITHIN THE PURDAH
her health or to prolong her life. Her death is
earnestly hoped for not only by her family and
friends, but by herself also.
On one occasion a native zenana worker who
taught one of the respectable married sisters of one
of these little unfortunate unmarried girls begged
the father to allow her to bring a physician, not
with any hope of restoring health, or even pro-
longing life, but simply with the object of relieving
the intense suffering which this daughter, who was
far gone in consumption, was so patiently enduring.
On several occasions the zenana worker had begged
permission to do this, but the father was not willing
to pay any medical fees, and still less willing to have
the health of his daughter restored or her life pro-
longed. Finally, however, she obtained permission
to bring a lady physician, with the understanding
that no fees should be charged and no effort made
to restore the health or prolong the life of the
patient, but only to relieve the pain. The native
zenana worker then explained the case to me, and I
readily agreed to the terms, consenting to pay the
visit without charge and with the sole object of re-
lieving the most distressing symptoms. I can never
forget my visit. The expression of utter hopeless-
ness, despair, and misery on this young girl’s face
beggars description. The memory of it haunted
me for many days afterward. During a subsequent
visit, and through my interpreter, I carefully de-
scribed to my little patient God’s great plan of sal-
vation. I assured her that she was immortal — that
WITHIN THE PURDAH
47
she could never die. I said, “The part of you that
thinks, that feels, that suffers, that rejoices, that
understands — that part must live forever, and for-
ever, and forever.” I told her Christ would prepare
a place for her in heaven, and that he would take
her to himself if she would only believe on him and
give her heart to him. She listened with intense
eagerness, her eyes dilating, her face flushing and
then growing pale again. She had been taught to
believe that she had no soul, being a woman, and
that her only hope would have been in marriage,
which the gods had denied her. A married woman
may hope, by the faithful discharge of her duties
to her husband, obedience to her mother-in-law,
etc., etc., some time to be born again in the form of
a man, and after that, perhaps, she may merge into
the great God, and thus lose her individuality and
identity ; but a woman who has been cursed of the
gods, and for whom a husband could not be found,
has no hope in this life or in the next. When,
however, she heard the true story of the creation,
the fall, the redemption of the world through the
death of Christ, the immortality of the soul, and
God’s great plan of salvation, she accepted it with
the simplicity of a young child, and, trusting in the
Lord Jesus Christ for her eternal salvation, she re-
ceived him into her heart gladly, joyfully. How
can I tell it? No words can describe the wonderful
change which swept over her pale, sad face. If
she had ever known joy, if there had ever been a
ray of hope in her heart, it had left no trace upon
48
WITHIN THE PURDAH
her poor, wan countenance. Now, for the first
time, her face was lighted up with joy and hope
and peace ; and in her large dark eyes a wonderful
love-light came, and remained until all light was
gone and her spirit was with God.
As soon as a female child is born in any house-
hold the preparations for rejoicing, which had been
made in anticipation of a son, are put aside, and no
one is allowed to partake of food in that house for
some time thereafter, as there is now cause for sad-
ness and not rejoicing. The father begins immedi-
ately to cast about in his mind for some one to
whom he may betroth his new-born daughter.
This is arranged as quickly as possible. He will
betroth her to an infant boy if convenient, or to a
boy in his childhood, or in his youth, or in his
young manhood ; or to a man in middle life, or
even to an old man with many wives. The only
imperatively necessary thing is that she be be-
trothed to some boy or man in her own caste, and
that without delay. Of course, in any case, the
bridegroom may die before the wee girl is yet old
enough to be married, and thus she will be left a
widow. This, however, would not be so dire a
catastrophe as for her to remain unmarried until
she pass the age of twelve. In the former case she
only is disgraced, and is supposed to have incurred
the curse of the gods ; whereas in the latter case her
parents and all their family are disgraced, deeply
and irreparably, among all their caste people.
The betrothal involves much expense to the little
Wealthy Hindu Bridegroom and his Child-Bride
WITHIN THE PURDAH
51
girl’s father. He is expected to make a feast for
the bridegroom’s family and friends. To the future
bridegroom’s father, mother, brothers, and sisters
he is expected to give bakhshish (gifts). We hear a
great tamashi (noise, sound of rejoicing) in the
street, and, rushing to the door, we see a horse, if
the family are in good circumstances, otherwise a
bullock, donkey, or goat, adorned with wreaths of
flowers, gold and silver trappings, and carrying
upon his back the bridegroom, who is also adorned
with gold, silver, and flowers in the most striking
manner. If his parents be wealthy, he may also be
adorned with jewels of many sorts and colors.
Men and boys crowd about, and there is a sound of
beating of drums, cymbals, and various musical in-
struments of native device. Somewhere behind in
the crowd there is a bullock cart, closely curtained
on all sides, and in this purdah-carriage is the baby
girl whose betrothal is now being celebrated. Of
course it may be that she has arrived at the age of
one, two, three, four, or five years, and that her
parents have been unable to arrange for this be-
trothal earlier ; but whether she be an infant of a
few days only or a little girl of five or six years,
she will be closely concealed in the purdah-carriage,
accompanied by her mother or nurse, or both, nei-
ther of whom can be seen by the people who
throng the carriage. After this ceremony the wed-
ding day must not too long be postponed. “ How
long?” do you ask? A few years ago the English
government passed a law to the effect that no bride
52
WITHIN THE PURDAH
should go to the house of her mother-in-law before
she arrived at the age of twelve years. I am a
witness, however, as is every practicing physician
in India, that this law is utterly ignored. Of
course a law is useless unless it is enforced; but
who can enforce such a law as this? Who knows
the age of the little girl-wife when she goes from
her mother’s home to the house of her mother-in-
law? She is a zenana woman. No European, no
man, except her nearest relatives, has ever seen
her form or face. No one knows her age except
her nearest relatives, and they all acquiesce in the
practice of child-marriage. Should the English
authorities suspect the true age of this little bride
to be less than that required by the law, and prose-
cute the parents, the father of the child would take
his affidavit unhesitatingly to the effect that she
has passed the age of twelve, even though she were
really only six, seven, or eight years of age. Often
and often have I treated little women patients of
five, six, seven, eight, and nine years, who were
at that time living with their husbands, and came to
our dispensary accompanied by their mother-in-law,
which is in itself a proof of the fact.
The wedding ceremony involves the father of
the bride in many additional and very heavy ex-
penses. He must again give a dinner to the bride-
groom’s family and friends ; he must again give
gifts to every member of that household. He
must purchase for his daughter many gold and
silver ornaments. Her ears must have gold and
WITHIN THE PURDAH
53
silver rings all around, every eighth of an inch.
She must wear necklaces that begin tightly about
the neck, increasing in length until they well-nigh
cover her chest and reach down to her waist. Her
fingers must have rings upon them, and her toes
must have rings also. The latter must be solid
silver, with blue enamel on the diamond-shaped
tops, in the center of which there is a little hook
holding a tiny silver bell, which renders the little
woman incapable of moving without starting the
jingle of silver. It is said that this custom was
invented in order that the mother-in-law might
know the exact whereabouts of her daughter-in-
law. Upon her ankles she wears heavy silver
anklets, so heavy and angular in shape as to soon
cause the slight ankle to become quite callous all
around. Through her left nostril she wears a gold
ring of small size. In the septum there is also a
gold ring, to which is attached a long pendant,
which droops over the mouth, and requires to be
lifted whenever she eats or drinks. The wed-
ding ring must be of pure gold, made in the shape
of a bugle, the most slender part of which passes
through the right nostril. It is always very large,
often interfering with the sight of the right eye.
If the parents are poor, the wedding ring may be
hollow ; but if they are wealthy, it must be solid, in
which case it is very heavy. Indeed, any of them
are sufficiently heavy to tear out the nostril, so that
it is a common thing at our dispensary to repair noses
thus rent ; although this ring is usually supported
54
WITHIN THE PURDAH
in part by a braid of hair brought from the back of
the head down over the forehead and along the
bridge of the nose. Her arms are covered with
tight ivory bangles, extending from the wrist close
down to the hand and up to the bend of the elbow.
At this point a small space is left, to allow flexion
and extension of the joint. Just above the elbow
the bangles begin again, extending to the shoulder.
The bangles are made to fit the arm so tightly as to
badly callous the wrist and, what is worse, to inter-
fere with the circulation of the blood, so that the
hands become swollen, purple, and very painful,
while the uncovered space at the elbow joint swells
enormously, often forming abscesses which require
to be lanced. These abscesses are intensely painful,
and yet the mother-in-law will on no consideration
allow even two or three of the bangles to be re-
moved in order to relieve this terrible suffering.
They (the bangles) are a sign of the child’s re-
spectable married condition, and to remove them
would be a disgrace, indicating her widowhood.
Indeed, they can never be removed during her life,
unless her husband first die. Now, if you remem-
ber that on her wedding day she is a mere child, you
will know that she must grow, and is almost sure at
one time or another to take on some additional
flesh, and in either case the pain recurs, abscesses
forming again and again. However large she may
become, these bangles, which have cost her father
the considerable sum of eighty or ninety rupees,
are never exchanged for a larger size. When they
WITHIN THE PURDAH
55
are first placed upon her arms they render her
almost helpless for a week or more ; she is unable
to feed herself, to dress her hair, or to make her
own toilet; so that a friend must wait upon her
until the tender flesh shrinks away from this firm,
unyielding’ pressure, and she becomes accustomed
to the stiffness, and is thus able to resume her daily
duties.
These, however, are not the only nor the greater
of the many expenses which the father is expected
to meet on the day of his daughter’s marriage. He
must pay into the hands of his daughter’s father-
in-law the, to him, great sum of two thousand
rupees. His income does not, in all probability,
exceed five dollars a month, and with this he must
support his family, which is probably large. In
order to raise the two thousand rupees at one time
he will need to mortgage the ornaments of his wife,
his daughters-in-law, if he be so fortunate as to have
any, and perhaps his brothers and other near rela-
tives will need to do the same in order to enable
him to raise the required amount. To liquidate
this debt and to redeem the ornaments mortgaged
will probably require the remainder of his life — un-
less he be so fortunate as to have a son or two who
may marry and thus get back the two thousand
rupees, together with ornaments, and secure a
daughter-in-law who will serve as family drudge
and slave. Nor does the father’s expense cease
when he has his daughter safely married and sent
to the home of her mother-in-law. If she fall ill at
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WITHIN THE PURDAH
any time, it becomes his duty and the duty of his
wife to pay her regular visits at stated intervals,
and on every such occasion his wife must pay into
the hand of this daughter's mother-in-law a sum
of money not less than eight annas. Should the
parents not visit their daughter when ill, or should
they visit her seldom, they will be considered by
their caste people to have failed in their parental
duty, and will be in disgrace as a result.
On the other hand, the son is a source of income
and honor to his parents as long as he lives. He
may be betrothed at any time after his birth ; and
this, as shown above, brings a feast and gifts to his
father’s family. Later on he is married, which
means two thousand rupees — a small fortune — to his
father. Besides this, all the jewels with which the
little wife is adorned may be mortgaged or sold by
her father-in-law, as they are all of pure gold or
silver. Moreover, the little daughter-in-law ac-
tually serves in her father-in-law’s house as a
family drudge and the slave of her mother-in-
law. This is the only hope of the Indian woman.
If she be blessed with a son, she looks forward
to the time when he will marry and her labors
cease, and when she will be respected and en-
vied by all the native women because she has
a married son and a daughter-in-law to serve
her. Moreover, this same son may be married
several times, even if his wives all live ; or if one
or more of them die, it affords him still greater op-
portunity for marrying, and each new wife will
WITHIN THE PURDAH
57
bring to bis father a small fortune. Besides all
this, he must of necessity follow the occupation of
his father, and early in his life he may begin to
earn a regular salary, which in every case he passes
over to his father, who is the head of the house as
long as he lives. Thus a son in India is a source
of increasing wealth and respectability to his par-
ents, while the daughter is the reverse.
To return to our dispensary. We find several
little women waiting to have their ears repaired ;
for not only does the nose ring tear out the nostril,
but it is a more common occurrence to have the ears
torn through. The earrings worn in this part of
the country by the poor and middle classes are solid
silver rings of immense size, and covered with great,
sharp protuberances. These rings pull the upper
half of the ear down over the lower half until the
whole ear is stretched and distorted so that you
would scarcely recognize it. Thus the great silver
rings are piled one upon another; being inserted,
as has already been stated, every eighth of an inch
all the way around the rim of the ear, and standing
out from the head two or three inches like great
horns. Whenever one of these rings tears its way
through the ear, so that it drops to the floor, the
mother-in-law will immediately pierce another hole
and put the ring back in its place ; and this she will
do as long as there is any space left. When,
finally, there is no longer any sound part through
which a hole can be bored in the little woman’s
ear, when the entire rim of that delicate organ is
4
58
WITHIN THE PURDAH
slitted and slashed like the ragged edge of a frayed
garment, then the mother-in-law will bring her to
the hospital to have her ears repaired. Not that
she cares in the least for the disfiguration thus
caused or for the deformity; that is a matter of no
consequence. The chief object of lading the wife
with ornaments and jewels is not that she may be
adorned, that her beauty may be enhanced — it is a
business arrangement. The wife is the bank of
her husband. He is distrustful of Englishmen and
of English banks; he fears to bury his gold in the
earth, lest its hiding place be discovered by robbers ;
but his wife is in purdah, kept in close seclusion ;
no robber can get at her without great difficulty.
He therefore invests every spare rupee in a solid
gold or silver ornament to be hung upon his wife’s
person. This can be mortgaged or sold at any
time, and is just so much cash to him. They are
not careful that the gold and silver ornaments be
beautifully molded or carved. It is a common
thing to see a very rough gold nugget made into a
necklace, the several parts of which are beaten
out in the crudest manner. The natives of India
object to anaesthetics, and think it quite unneces-
sary to administer anything for the, to them,
trifling operation of repairing such rents. It is an
everyday occurrence to have several such patients
at our dispensary, and to see one after another sit
down quietly and have two, three, or more rents in
each ear denuded and sewed up, and one or two
such in the right nostril. During the whole opera-
WITHIN THE PURDAH
59
tion, which is really a very painful one, the little
patient will never wince, nor cry out, nor make any
sign of pain. She is so inured to suffering that this
is easily borne.
Here comes another patient from the clerk’s
office. She resembles the others in size, but seems
to be rather older than the first-mentioned, though
still young. She is very lame, and walks with
difficulty. Her mother-in-law precedes her; a
young native woman is never permitted to leave
her husband’s house except she is accompanied by
her mother-in-law. Presently they stand before
us, and the mother-in-law begins to explain that
her daughter-in-law is a very bad, ill-tempered,
naughty child, and that recently, in a fit of temper,
she threw herself from the roof of the house and
lamed herself badly. We turn to the little patient
for her version of the story. She repeats almost
precisely the words just spoken by her mother-in-
law. She confesses herself to be very ill-tempered
and naughty, and declares that she injured herself
in leaping from the roof of the house. After
making a careful examination of my patient I am
convinced that both mother-in-law and daughter-
in-law have lied ; and so I determine, for once in
their lives, to separate this mother-in-law from her
daughter-in-law. Bidding the former remain
where she is, I take the little wife into my private
consulting room, and the door is fastened; then I
bring a chair and persuade the little woman to sit
down upon it. This she is very loath to do, as she
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has never been allowed to sit in the presence of any
person whom she respects. Finally, however, she
takes the chair by my side. I now assure her that
I am her friend. I tell her about my happy home
in America ; that I have a father who loves me and
brothers who love me and are kind to me, but that
I heard of her ; I knew her life was unhappy, that
her friends were not gentle and kind to her as mine
were to me, and because of my love for the dear
Lord, who came to earth to suffer and to die for her
and for me, I left my home in the far-off land, and
came across the waters, away over to India, in order
that I might somehow help her. I ask her if she
believes all this; if she believes that I am her
friend ; but long before I have reached this point the
little woman is convulsed with sobs. Indian wom-
en, especially in Sindh, seldom weep on account of
harsh words, unkindness, or pain of any sort, how-
ever severe. They are inured to suffering; but
when you declare yourself to be their friend, when
you speak to them kind, tender words, it is not
difficult to find their hearts. And so, as soon as
she is able to speak, she confesses that she believes
me to be her friend ; that she never had a friend
or anyone to love her, and that no one ever talked
to her thus before in all her life. In reply I tell
her I am her physician ; that I wish to make
her well and strong, but cannot do so unless I know
the facts of her case. I tell her that I am fully
aware that both she and her mother-in-law mis-
represented the case to me in the general consulting
WITHIN THE PURDAH
61
room. I know from the character of her wounds
that she never got them by jumping from the roof
of a house. “So now,” I say, “won’t you tell me
the truth? Won’t you tell me just how you got
these wounds and bruises? I shall not tell your
mother-in-law. I shall not tell any of your caste
people, but I want to know all about it ; the whole
truth.” She promises to tell me the truth, and
then begins by saying that she is a very naughty
girl and very ill-tempered. I stop her and remind
her of her promise to tell me the truth. She
assures me again that she will tell me the truth.
She fully believes this to be true. She has been
told all her life that she was the worst and most ill-
tempered creature on the face of the earth, and she
has no doubt of its truth ; and so she begins again
with the same confession, after which she proceeds to
say that on one occasion a brother-in-law asked her
to do something which she felt herself really too
weak to do. She was so tired, so weak, and so
hungry that she did not instantly obey his com-
mand, perhaps she even answered back, whereupon
he felled her to the earth. Another came along and
kicked her, and still another member of her hus-
band’s family beat her with a club until she became
unconscious. She does not know what happened
after that, but she imagines they thought they had
killed her, and were frightened on account of the
English government ; at any rate, after she came
to herself she found they had dragged her behind
the house, in the narrow space between it and the
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great wall which surrounds it. When she raised
her head and looked about she saw her mother-in-
law peeping around the corner. As soon as she
was able she dragged herself out where she could
get a drink of water. All this happened two weeks
ago. Since then she has been gradually improving,
but has not yet been able to work much, and be-
cause of this latter her mother-in-law, judging her
to be so far recovered that the doctor at the hospital
would believe her story about leaping from the roof
of the house, determined to bring her to the dispen-
sary in order that she might be made well enough
to work.
This is one case only ; many such have I treated
in Hyderabad. Little frail creatures come into
the hospital all black and blue, and maimed from
head to foot, from brutal kicks and club beatings
which they have received at the hands of mother-
in-law, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, and other
members of the husband’s household; and this
often upon the slightest provocation. Do you
question why the English government permits
such outrages? It is plain enough. The English
government does not and would not permit it
if the English government had any power to pre-
vent it.
Suppose that I, as an English government physi-
cian, in charge of this dispensary, were to prosecute
the perpetrators of this outrage. A day would be
appointed for the hearing. The case must needs
be tried in a small-cause court, as all such cases
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63
come under this head, and these courts are all
presided over by native judges. On the day of
hearing the father-in-law, his sons, brothers, and
other relatives, together with perhaps fifty or more
outside witnesses (who for two annas each are
willing to swear to anything), all give evidence to
the same effect; that, from such, or such, or such a
distance, he saw this little woman leap from the
roof of her father-in-law’s house and had personally
heard her cries, knowing that she must have been
injured by the fall. They would each and all
testify to the perfectly upright, honorable, and re-
spectable character of the father-in-law’s family.
After such overwhelming evidence as this, all
coming from eyewitnesses (?), what weight would
my evidence have? I testify that on a certain
occasion, in my private consulting room, this
little child-wife gave a very different explanation
as to the cause of her wounds. Perhaps my in-
terpreter is also present, and confirms my evi-
dence. To overbalance this, however, the little
child-wife herself, in her close purdah garment, is
brought into court, and there takes her affidavit
that she leaped from the roof of her father-in-law’s
house in a fit of anger, and thus wounded herself.
She will perhaps also testify that she is very ill-
tempered and bad, and that her husband’s family
are all very good and kind to her. She dare not, for
her life, testify otherwise. Of course the judge will
dismiss the case. It may be that away down in his
heart he is convinced that the little American doc-
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WITHIN THE PURDAH
tor somehow must have gotten a confession of the
truth from this little Indian woman, but he is, never-
theless, glad that she has not sufficient evidence to
prove the facts in the case. For he himself would
treat his own daughter-in-law in like manner; in-
deed, he considers that the husband or father-in-
law has a perfect right to take the life of his wife or
daughter-in-law if he feels so inclined.
As already intimated, the daughter-in-law is a
drudge and slave in her husband’s home. Early
in the morning, before any other members of the
family are awake, she is up ; and sitting in front of
the door on the ground, she grinds the wheat for
the day’s consumption. The wheat is ground be-
tween two great stones, the upper one having a
hole in its center, through which the wheat falls
from the hand of the grinder. The upper stone
has also a wooden handle at one side by which it is
turned around and around. This is the same sort
of a mill as that referred to in the Bible: “Two
women shall be grinding at the mill.” If there
are two daughters-in-law in the family, the two will
share this labor, one sitting on either side of the
mill. They are supposed to sing a grinding song
while engaged in this task, and for the song to
cease before the wheat is ground would be sufficient
offense to justify a blow from any member of the
husband’s family. This is very arduous labor, and
the slight little women sometimes faint away while
engaged in the task. Later in the day the dcgchas
(brass and copper cooking utensils) must be scoured
A Little Daughter-in-law Scouring the Degchas
WITHIN THE PURDAH
67
with the palm of the hand until they shine like mir-
rors. Common soil from the front of the door is
used for this purpose.
In this part of India the fashion allows the
daughter-in-law, in the early, early morning, be-
fore anyone else is astir, to break her fast with
any cold food, rice curry or chapati (pancake, made
of flour and water), which may have been left over
from the day before. If there chance to be no
such cold food in the house, which is often the
case, then her fast must remain unbroken during
the long hours of that hot, sultry day. Though
she prepare all the food for the family, no particle
may pass her lips. She prepares the food and
stands serving while the others eat, but she has
nothing to satisfy her own hunger until late at
night, nine or ten o’clock, when all the family have
eaten, smoked the hnqqa (native pipe), gossiped,
and retired to rest; then, if there be cold food left
in the house, any which has not been consumed
during the day, she may take of this to satisfy her
hunger. Consequently — a natural result of this
custom — the mother-in-law is often obliged to bring
her little half-starved daughter-in-law to the dis-
pensaiy for treatment. She will then stand be-
fore you and declare that the girl-wife is very
lazy ; that she does not love work ; and that often
while engaged in grinding her wheat, or some other
domestic task, she pretends a faint and seems to
become unconscious. She assures you that this
cannot be real ; she is certain that the child is only
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shirking work, but adds that, though she beat her,
she will not resume her task ; and when, finally, she
returns to consciousness and goes back to her work
she will perhaps faint again. She then instructs
you that in case you find any serious disease upon
the child which is likely to be fatal it is a matter of
no consequence. She does not care to prolong her
life if she is likely to die, for she is only a girl, and
no good on earth. But if she live, she must work ;
so, if you do not find anything serious the matter
with her, she will be glad to have you give her
something that will make her strong to work.
During all this harangue the daughter-in-law’s face
does not alter in its expression. She has heard
such talk as this all her life, and she cannot be
more grieved than she has ever been. The same
look of settled, helpless despondency remains on
her countenance. We examine the frail little pa-
tient. Her body is emaciated almost to a skele-
ton ; her little pulse flutters and intermits. We
find no organic disease present, and we know by
many signs that she is in a condition of chronic starva-
tion. We interrogate the mother-in-law as to her
food — when she eats, what she eats, how often she
takes food, and in what quantities. Unblushingly
the mother-in-law refers to the above custom,
which allows the daughter-in-law to eat the rem-
nants of food which are left over from the family
meals during the early morning hour and late at
night. We tell her that she is starving the child to
death ; and ask her if she will not provide at least
WITHIN THE PURDAH
69
one cup of milk every day at noon, or one egg; or
at least make sure that the child does get some-
thing to eat in the middle of the day regularly.
In answer the mother-in-law straightens herself
up, and with a sarcastic smile she assures you
that that child’s small stomach is not able to contain
more food than she gets. By this you know that,
while for the sake of the work she is willing to
bring her daughter-in-law to the dispensary to get
medicine which costs her nothing, she will not go
to the expense of one extra pic { a .small copper coin,
worth about one sixth of a cent) for the sake of im-
proving her daughter-in-law’s health or prolonging
her life. We have a secret closet in our hospital,
of which I carry the key. It contains beef extract,
mutton extract, essence of chicken, soups, and other
nourishing preparations. “My Esther,” my Christian
matron, and one or two of my Christian nurses
know about this closet, and so I give to one of them
the key, and she understands what is meant. Pres-
ently she returns with a large bottle, having upon it
a very imposing scarlet label, directing that the
patient take one wineglassful of the contents every
hour. Of course, if these high-caste natives knew
that I was feeding a member of their family upon
beef or mutton, or any other meat preparation, my
life would no longer be safe in their midst. They
do not know it, however, and there is little danger
of their ever finding it out, as none of them would
know the taste of meat, however prepared, if they
were fed upon it. By this means we are able at
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least to prevent the child from starvation, and to
give her a little strength whereby she may perform
her daily task without excessive fatigue.
I have endeavored to describe a few of my most
interesting patients in order to acquaint you with
those peculiar pathological conditions which result
from the strange and cruel practices of this most
barbarous people. I have not mentioned any of
the many cases of leprosy which come to our dis-
pensary for treatment; nor yet that even more
loathsome but unnamable disease which prevails
to such an alarming extent throughout this part of
India ; nor smallpox, which is sometimes seen ; nor
cholera, many cases of which we have during every
cholera season. It has not been my object to dis-
cuss medical subjects, nor to outline the treatment
of diseases peculiar to India ; but rather merely to
touch upon those self-inflicted tortures which ac-
quaint us with the cruel customs, prejudices, and
barbarous practices of these people in their inner
home-life. Perhaps, if you were there with me in
person, instead of being there merely in imagina-
tion, the thing which would leave the deepest and
the most indelible impression upon your mind, more
than any diseased condition which I have named or
could name, is the expression upon the counte-
nances of these women — old and young. As we
enter together the great front door which leads into
the front veranda, and you cast your eyes over the
crowd of women and children that sit upon the
floor of that veranda, you will see upon their faces
WITHIN THE PURDAH
71
an expression of settled, unchanging, hopeless mis-
ery, which it is utterly impossible to describe. The
children are not playing around with one another.
There seems to be no real child-life among them ;
it has been utterly crushed out; unless, indeed,
there happen to be some little boys in the crowd.
The girls, though little more than babes, sit quietly
on the floor, like old women, wearing the same look
of hopeless despair and wretchedness. You never
see these little girls at play ; you never see a happy,
joyous expression upon their countenances. And
many women at the age of thirty appear to be de-
crepit, worn-out, old women.
My work in the hospital at Hyderabad was de-
lightful. There was nothing difficult or arduous
in connection with it. I had a full staff of efficient
hospital assistants, who seemed to vie with each
other in rendering me the most prompt, efficient,
anticipative service. My work was only the purely
medical and surgical. Indeed, much of the medical
and surgical work I could safely intrust to either
“My Esther,” my matron, or my head nurse. The
hospital records were prepared by the hospital
clerk ; I had only to review, correct, and sign them.
Even my prescriptions were written by another at
my dictation. My compounder, or druggist, never
made a mistake in the putting up of his medicines
or in the labeling of them. Only the examination,
diagnosis, and prescribing for my medical patients
and the performing of major operations devolved
upon me ; and, of course, the overseeing and man-
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aging of the whole. All this was pure delight to
me, as I love medicine and surgery and everything
in connection with it ; and yet, I assure you, often
and often I have returned home from my dispensary
and thrown myself upon my face in utter weariness
of body and mind— not because of any work which
I had performed, but simply on account of the
heartrending stories of suffering to which I had
listened and the horrible conditions which I had
witnessed, but which I felt myself so utterly helpless
to materially better. Indeed, I often questioned in
my mind whether there could be any real advantage
in relieving the present merely physical suffering,
and prolonging human life in cases where the heart,
the mind, the soul, writhed in agony, being so much
more hopelessly diseased — the heart sufferings ex-
ceeding in such great measure any possibility of
physical pain.
Will you go with me to visit one out-patient?
The messenger is a Hindu prince. He comes in a
fine English phaeton, drawn by foiir horses. He
has two coachmen on the box, two standing behind.
He himself is attired in pure white garments, with
the peculiar tall silk hat, with its crown downward
and its rim above, which is worn by every wealthy
and distinguished native gentleman in the district
of Sindh. He is a man of sixty or sixty-five years
of age, and his hair is quite white. He informs me
that one of his wives is very ill, and that he wishes
me to go at once to see her. I take my seat in the
carriage, with “ My Esther” at my side. We pass
A Young Hindu Prince A Wealthy Mohammedan Nawab, or Prince
WITHIN THE PURDAH
75
through the narrow streets of the native city until
we reach a great gateway opening through a tall
wall which surrounds the premises. At this gate
we alight from our carriage and, passing through a
very small gate in the center of one of the two
doors of which the large gate is composed, we find
ourselves in the courtyard of the prince. This
court is about thirty by sixty feet in size, and is sur-
rounded by a great wall. At the farther end you
see a deep veranda with a sloping roof, which ob-
structs the skylight so much as to render it quite
dark. We cross the courtyard and enter the ve-
randa, from which we pass through a large folding
door into the one apartment which constitutes the
home of this prince. It is a room of about fifteen
by thirty feet in size. There is no window in the
room, nor any opening except the door through
which we entered. The apartment has a ground
floor. You see no furniture about, but the place is
crowded with women and children of all ages. As
soon as our eyes become accustomed to the dimness
we are conducted to a corner of the room behind
the door, where, stretched upon the floor, we find
the emaciated form of a woman of about thirteen
or fourteen years of age. She is the fourth wife of
the prince, though there is such a remarkable dis-
crepancy in their ages. I get down on the ground
floor by the side of my little patient, in order to
examine her carefully. I find no organic disease,
but soon perceive that she is starving to death. I
prescribe one of the large bottles from the secret
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closet in my dispensary, and volunteer to supply a
trained nurse, without charge, in order that my lit-
tle patient may have every attention and may be
sure to get the medicine and the other nourish-
ments which I prescribe at regular intervals. The
prince, however, gladly accepting the medicine, not
knowing its ingredients, refuses the services of my
nurse, assuring me that his wife shall have every
attention and that my minutest orders shall be
scrupulously carried out. Thus we leave them.
The following day the same carriage stops again in
front of my bungalow door. The prince has come
to take me again to his home. As we drive along
through the streets of the native city he tells me
that his wife, my patient, is a very troublesome lit-
tle woman, and that she has refused to take my
medicine and the nourishment which I prescribed.
He assures me that she holds me in great reverence,
and that if I but exercise my authority over her,
scold her a little and command her sternly, she
will obey me and there will be no further trouble.
Again in the dark corner with my patient, I request
“ My Esther” to clear the room, which is crowded
with women and children as before. This is no easy
task. With arms extended, as if she were driving
a flock of geese, and with many words she attempts
to get the women and children into the courtyard.
At my request the prince assists in this process of
driving ; but as fast as they are gotten out of the
door they slip back again, stooping under the out-
stretched arms of “My Esther,” and crowding back
“Mv Esther,” Mrs. Mary Esther Isaac Ilaht Baksh
WITHIN THE PURDAH
79
into some dark corner where they may see and hear
all that is going on. At length, however, the room
is empty, and I request the lord of the place to
stand in the door and guard the way, that no person
may enter again. This I do with the double mo-
tive of keeping the women and children out and
meantime keeping him away also. Of course I
cannot close the door, for all the light we get comes
through it, and the room would be perfectly dark if
the door were closed. Sitting down on the ground
by the side of my patient, I take her little emaciated
hand between my two large palms, and with low-
pitched voice I begin talking to her very much in
the same way as I talked to the little girl who had
been beaten. I tell her about my home in America,
my family and friends there ; I tell' her about the
Lord Jesus Christ and his love for her and for me;
how he left his home in heaven to come to earth,
to suffer and to die for our sakes. I assure her of
my love for her, my great interest in her, my sym-
pathy for her in her sufferings, and my desire to
help her. She weeps so much that I feel obliged
to discontinue my talk lest she injure herself.
When, finally, she is calm again I ask her why she
did not take my medicine, and why she refused the
nourishment which I had prescribed. At this ques-
tion she puts her little emaciated hands together in
a respectful salaam and says, while her voice trem-
bles with emotion: “ O, doctor, Sahiba, do not ask
me to take your medicine ! Do not ask me to take
the nourishment ! If I take your English medicine,
5
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and if I take the food which you have prescribed
for me, I shall get well ; and, O, I do not wish to
get well ! So don’t — please don’t — ask me to take
it!”
’Tis thus in heathen darkness
Fair women crave to die ;
Their crushed and broken spirits
From direst fetters fly.
Such mute appeal, unheeded,
Must rend the startled air
Till God, in mercy stooping.
Avenge that silent prayer.
O, haste, ye Christian people,
Of every clime and name,
Go bear the Gospel message.
Its joyful news proclaim !
Haste, haste, the day is passing.
The harvest ripe appears ;
List to thy Master’s calling.
Dispel all selfish fears.
Go, lift the purdah curtain !
Go, break the iron bar !
Beat down that wall of granite,
And shout the tidings far.
BOOK II
THE ZENANA HOMES
OF INDIAN PRINCES
TO
THE BELOVED SON OF MY ADOPTION
MR. J. A. ILAHI BAKSH
OF
THE HIMALAYA MOUNTAINS
INDIA
THIS SMALL WORK
“IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES”
IS
AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
BY
HIS EVER FAITHFUL AND TRUE
MOTHER-FRIEND
THE AUTHOR
BOOK II
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN
PRINCES
THE TAJ MAHAL
HE Taj Mahal, of world-wide celebrity, is situ-
ated in the Northwest Provinces of India,
about two miles from the city of Agra, on the bank
of the Jumna River, and one mile east of Agra fort.
It is an extraordinarily beautiful mausoleum, and
was built by the Emperor Shah Jahan as a sepul-
cher for himself and for his favorite wife, Muntaz-
i-Mahal, the “ Exalted of the Palace,” who died in
The cost of this temple is said to have been about
two crores of rupees (about ten million dollars) and
twenty thousand workmen were incessantly em-
ployed upon it for a period of twenty-two years.
The general design of this tomb is extremely
complex and graceful, and the workmanship is most
elaborate and remarkably beautiful. The chief
features of the building are the mausoleum in the
center, on an elevated platform, surmounted by a
magnificent dome, with smaller domes at each cor-
ner, and four very graceful and exquisite minarets
one hundred and thirty-three feet in height. The
1629.
85
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building is, for the most part, constructed of pure
white marble from Jeypore and red sandstone from
Fatehpur Sikri. The mosaic work of the interior
is remarkably rich and beautiful in effect. This is
the finest building in India, and is acknowledged to
be the most exquisitely beautiful structure in the
world.
A colossal gateway admits you to the inclosure.
In front of the tomb is a beautiful garden, contain-
ing a great variety of tropical trees, in the center
of which is an avenue of tall dark cypresses sepa-
rated by fountains. From the foundation of the
tomb arises a double platform, the first being of red
sandstone, twenty feet high and one thousand feet
broad ; the second of marble, fifteen feet high and
three hundred feet square. The whole building is
about one hundred and eighty-six feet square.
The following description is taken from The
Times of India, and was written by William H. Rus-
sell :
‘ ‘ On mounting to the platform of tesselated mar-
ble on which the body of the building, surmounted
by its dome and slender minarets, stands, the propor-
tions of the whole are so full of grace and feeling
that the mind rests quite contented with the general
impression ere it gives a thought to the details of
the building — the exquisite screens of marble in the
windows, the fretted porches, the arched doorways,
from which a shower of fleecy marble, mingled
with a rain of gems, seems about to fall upon you ;
the solid walls melting and glowing with tendrils
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES
87
of bright flowers and wreaths of bloodstone, agate,
jaspar, carnelian, amethyst, snatched as it were
from the garden outside and pressed into the snowy
blocks. Enter by the doorway before you ; the
arched roof of the cupola rises above you, and the
light falls dimly on the shrinelike tombs in the cen-
ter — see glistening marble again — a winter palace,
in whose glacial walls some gentle hand has buried
the last flowers of autumn. And hark ! As you
whisper gently there rolls through the obscure
vault overhead a murmur like that of the sea on a
pebbly beach in summer — a low sweet song of praise
and peace. A white-bearded moulvie, who never
raises his eyes from his book as we pass, suddenly
reads out a verse from the Koran. Hark again !
How an invisible choir takes it up, till the reverber-
ated echoes swell into the full volume of the sound
of many voices ; it is as though some congregation
of the skies were chanting their earnest hymns
above our heads.
“ The tomb stands in the center. A dome of
snowy whiteness, upward of two hundred feet above
the level of the platform, with a circumference at
the base of more than the same number of feet,
rises above the great pediment which constitutes
the shrine. It is covered by two gilt balls, which
are surmounted by a gilt crescent. At each angle
of the building a small dome, the miniature of that
in the center, is placed. There is an entrance on
each side of the shrine formed by a very beautifully
proportioned arch, with pointed top nearly the
88
WITHIN THE PURDAH
height of the whole building, and smaller arches at
the sides. All this marble is wonderfully inlaid
with precious stones, with texts from the Koran,
wreaths of flowers, and the richest arabesques. It
is in the lower part of the building, and in the body
of the terrace, as it were, below the dome, that
the tombs of the great shah, ‘ the King of the
World,’ and of his consort are placed. The ceno-
taph of the latter is covered with profuse ornaments
and texts from the holy book of the Mohammedans.
Her lord lies beside her, beneath a less costly but
loftier monument, and the two tombs are inclosed
by a latticed wall of white marble, which is cut and
carved as though it were of the softest substance in
the world. A light burned in the tombs, and some
garlands of flowers were laid over the rich imita-
tions of themselves by which the surface was cov-
ered. The chamber of the tomb is octagonal, and
is nearly in utter darkness. The effect of the rays
of the lamps on the white marble railing and on
parts of the glistening walls of the tomb is powerful
— gloomy and yet bright. On emerging thence we
once more enter the Great Chamber, where are
placed the unoccupied sarcophagus of the shah and
of his wife directly over the real tombs in the cham-
ber below, on which are bestowed the most elabo-
rate efforts of the extraordinary skill which is dis-
played in the building. Flowers in many gems,
mosaics, wreaths, scrolls, texts, run riot over the
marble surface of the sarcophagus, walls, and vaulted
dome rising above us.”
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES
89
The Zenana Home is a small, dark, mud-plastered, unfurnished
room where the high-caste and wealthy married woman is kept in
lifelong seclusion. It is, practically, a prison-house, a penitentiary
cell, the tomb of a living wife. Even the favorite wife of the Em-
peror Shah Jahan himself must have known no better home than
this during her lifetime ; but after her death the above-described
extravagantly expensive monument was erected to her memory.
The dead wife’s tomb is grand and fair,
All wrought from snow-white marble rare ;
Bv hand inlaid with mother-of-pearl,
Outlining flower and beauteous curl.
Its walls and ceilings all are fraught
With work mosaic, strangely wrought ;
And rich and beauteous in design,
More graceful than a clinging vine ;
While rainbow colors all combine
To glorify this dead wife’s shrine —
A monument of stately grace
Whose brightness rivals heaven’s face.
Its domes of shining marble rise
In bold relief toward the skies.
Full twenty thousand craftsmen wrought,
To hew from stone this wondrous thought,
For two and twenty years, they say,
Incessantly they toiled away
From early dawn till eventide ;
They hewed, and carved, and beautified ;
Nor did the daily task decrease.
Nor ever did the labor cease,
Till full one score of years and more —
One score and two — were counted o’er :
When, lo! the temple stood complete,
With grace and beauty all replete —
The Tomb of the Dead
and
The Tomb of the Living
90
WITHIN THE PURDAH
And wondering nations still confess
And marvel at its loveliness.
Ten million dollars, it is said,
Were spent for this tomb of the dead.
The tomb of living wife, I ween,
Zenana home of princess, queen,
Is small, and dark, and bare, and mean,
As lowest hovel ever seen.
The native’s horse and goat and cow
More precious are, by far, I trow.
Unto his “ royal ” (?) heart than she
May ever hope on earth to be ;
She but his wife, and one of four —
Or one of many, many score.
And so she lives in living tomb ;
It is her “ fate,” her bitter doom ;
Unloved, unwept, she lives to weep
And lifelong, changeless vigil keep.
She prays to die, she sighs alone,
But no one heeds her bitter moan ;
“ Only a woman ” she.
THE ZENANA WOMAN AND HER PURDAH
HOME
Zenana, properly speaking, means woman ; but
in a broader, more common sense it has come
to be applied more particularly to the high-caste
wealthy woman of India. Or it may mean her
home, if hers can be called a home — the prison-
house where she is kept in seclusion, the sepulcher
where she must remain entombed during all the days
of her life. Indeed, the term may be applied to
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES
91
almost anything which pertains to a native, high-
caste wealthy woman of India or to her secluded
life.
Purdah really means curtain, but in common
usage it has come to be applied to the zenana home,
or house ; to the long, close garment which conceals
the face and form of the zenana woman ; or, indeed,
to anything which contributes to the seclusion of a
high-caste Indian woman.
We often speak of a “ purdah woman,” or we
may speak of a “zenana woman” as being “in
purdah.” Both words relate to the custom of keep-
ing high-caste native women of wealthy parentage
in seclusion, but the word zenana relates more par-
ticularly to the high-caste wealthy native woman
herself, while purdah relates to the environments
which are adjusted with a view to her seclusion.
The very poor and the low-caste women of India,
who greatly outnumber the wealthy, are as free as
the women of any country ; and may go out and in
at their pleasure, carry packages on their heads
from the railway station to European homes with
the common coolies, sweep the streets, visit the
parks with the children whom they have in charge,
carry on regular laundry work — going for and
bringing back the clothes themselves; indeed, they
are free to engage in any occupation which belongs
to their caste.
The daughter or the wife of a high-caste wealthy
native gentleman, however, has no such privilege.
She may never wander free over God’s green sod.
92
WITHIN THE PURDAH
She may never watch the advancing glory of the
rising sun in the eastern horizon nor gaze upon the
gorgeous sunset in the west. Her foot may never
leave its imprint in the soft, moist sand of the sea-
shore. She may not roam the woodland, nor pluck
the opening blossom laden with dew in the early
springtime, nor inhale the fragrance that fills the
air, exuding from every growing thing. She may
never wander by the flowing stream, nor climb the
mountain height, nor rest in the shade of a tree,
nor breathe at early dawn the fresh, cool, perfumed
air that fills with joy and life and vigor every living
thing. She is a prisoner, condemned to lifelong
solitude and close confinement, though guilty of no
crime ; though innocent and guileless as an infant.
There is no chair in her home, no table, no fur-
niture of any kind, no carpet on the mud floors of
her dwelling, no picture upon the mud walls ; the
mud ceiling of her prison-house is festooned with
smoke only. In the courtyard surrounding her
prison-house there may be an old, half-dead tree,
with its leaves withered and its branches broken.
There may be one or two horses, cows, or goats,
and a caged parrot also. There is no grass. The
place is surrounded by high brick or stone walls
plastered over with mud. True, if her eyes are
strong enough to bear the terrible glare, she may
gaze upon the sun at the noon hour as he passes
almost directly over her head. In the morning and
in the evening she may look up above her head and
see God’s blue sky, but it is not the deep blue that
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES
93
delights and rests the eye in this more temperate
clime ; that beautiful deep blue color seems burned
out in the awful heat, so that the sky assumes a
pale gray aspect, like a bleached and faded gar-
ment. During the monsoon weather she may watch
the clouds, dark and threatening, as they pass above
the dingy walls of her prison-house. Bouquets of
cut blossoms may be brought to her to relieve the
dull monotony of her solitary life, but this is all,
or nearly all, that she is permitted to enjoy of all
the numberless beautiful things which God has
given to rest the eye and delight the human soul.
She is not, however, altogether alone in her soli-
tude. She is one of many wives. If she be the
first, or one, even, of the four chief wives, she is
fortunate indeed. She may be only one of the hun-
dred, or four hundred, concubines in her husband’s
harem ; in which latter case she is nothing more nor
less than a slave — purchased at a price — who may
be kicked or beaten at the caprice of her lord and
master, and upon the slightest provocation.
Who would not choose the hard, half-starved,
overworked but free life of the poorest sweeper
woman rather than the imprisoned, monotonous
existence of a high-caste zenana woman, though
hers be royal blood?
The Zenana Woman
She is a princess, or a queen —
She may not see, nor yet be seen.
She may not laugh, and shout, and play
Through childhood’s buoyant, festive day.
94
WITHIN THE PURDAH
She may not other maidens know
In youth, nor may she skip or row.
She has no toys with which to play —
No games to while the hours away.
She seldom hears a story new ;
Of stranger guests she has but few.
She cannot knit, nor sew, nor brew,
Nor any other task pursue.
She cannot write, nor read, you know ;
To school she is forbid to go.
She may not with the poet soar,
Nor study any ancient lore ;
Nor scan a paper, or a book.
Nor even on a picture look.
Within four dingy walls of clay
She is forever doomed to stay —
Though guilty of no crime, I trow.
Her guileless heart and olive brow
Must feel a thraldom and a woe
Which free-born souls need never know.
She ne’er may wander glad and free
As any child of God should be.
Her foot may never tread the mead
Where cowslips grow and wild deer feed.
She ne’er may roam the woodland through.
Nor pluck the gentle violet blue ;
Nor trace the outline of a flower
Beneath some sheltered woodland bower.
Her foot elastic may not know
Nor feel the yielding sod below.
She ne’er may list the wild bird s song.
Where myriad feathered minstrels throng.
She ne’er may hear the echo fall
Within God’s blue-arched forest hall ;
Nor breathe the clover-scented air,
Nor watch the bees their sweets prepare.
Her foot may never wander free
By any stream, ’neath any tree.
95
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES
She may not climb the mountain steep,
Nor watch the cataract’s fearful leap ;
Nor rest in peaceful valley green,
Nor gaze upon a beauteous scene.
She may not scent the new-mown hay,
Nor watch the golden dawn of day ;
Nor see the sun in glory set,
Nor pluck the blossoms, dewy wet ;
Nor breathe the perfumed morning air,
Nor gather shells and pebbles rare ;
Nor feel the thrill of dawning light,
Nor sadness sweet of gathering night.
The holy calm of eventide
Is all unknown where such abide.
Her pulses may not thrill and glow
To see the world clad white with snow.
She ne’er may see great forests bow
’Neath pyramids of snow, I trow ;
Nor may she see the giant trees,
Left naked by the autumn breeze,
All clothed in diamonds — as it seems —
And shining in the sun’s bright beams.
She may not sail the deep sea o’er.
Nor press the yielding, sandy shore.
She may not list the ocean’s roar.
Nor watch the eagle proudly soar,
Nor hearken to the laughing brook,
Nor slumber in a shady nook ;
Nor feel, nor see, nor hear, nor know
The wondrous marvels here below—
All things with grace and beauty fraught.
Which God’s almighty hand hath wrought.
Her bleeding heart and aching head
Must rest upon a prison bed ;
Within four walls her life be passed —
Her ashes in the Ganges cast.
6
96
WITHIN THE PURDAH
Mr. Syed Mohammed, Aid-de-camp to His Excellency the
Nawab Khurshed Jah.
Hyderabad, November, io, 1887.
Miss Saleni Armstrong, M.D.
Dear Doctor : I have much pleasure in introducing to you Mr.
Syed Mohammed, Aid-de-camp to His Excellency the Nawab
Khurshed Jah. Mr. Syed Mohammed desires an interview with
you respecting medical attendance to the Begam of His Excellency
the Nawab.
I am expecting that your skill, under God, will restore the Begam
to health.
Most sincerely,
S. P. Jacobs.
The above letter explains itself. Shortly after
its receipt Mr. Syed Mohammed, accompanied by
several native physicians, was ushered into my
presence. They came to engage me as family
physician to His Excellency the Nawab Khurshed
Jah, of Hyderabad, Deccan. Accordingly, on the
22d day of November, 1887, several visits and let-
ters having been exchanged in the interval, an ar-
ticle of agreement was drawn up and written on
English government stamped paper, according to
law, and signed by both parties.
The Nawab agreed to pay my professional fee of
seventy-five rupees per day, in addition to all inci-
dental and traveling expenses of myself and serv-
ants, from the time of leaving home until my return.
As this agreement may be somewhat curious and
interesting in this country, we will here insert a fac-
simile of the original document :
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Fac-simile of Legal Agreement, Written on Government
Stamped Paper.
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES
99
EMISSARIES FROM HIS HIGHNESS SAGHT SING,
THE MAHARAJAH OF BHINAI DISTRICT
On the 18th day of May, 1888, while in my great
Khetwady Castle home and hospital in Bombay, a
kind note from Dr. James Arnott, of the Bombay
Medical College, announced to me the arrival of
emissaries from His Highness Saght Sing, the
Maharajah of Bhinai District; and presently my
good butler ushered the gentlemen into my con-
sulting office, where I sat alone with my inter-
preter, Mrs. Moses. There were three of them,
all small-sized native men, each attired in a dress
peculiar to his individual rank and country. It
was a great medico-legal consultation case to which
these emissaries had come to call me. Physicians
were expected from various parts of India, and
they wished me to make the journey from Bombay
to Ajmere in company with one Dr. William Dim-
mock in time to meet the other physicians who
would gather there. This I agreed to do in con-
sideration of the, to the Maharajah, moderate fee
of one thousand rupees and all expenses. This
stipulation was readily agreed to, and the sum of
one thousand two hundred and thirty-one rupees
was paid into my hand in advance, with the under-
standing that any expense exceeding this amount
should be met by the Maharajah before my return
from Ajmere. Accordingly, on the 2 1st instant, I
received the following characteristic native letter
from Lachmi Narain, one of the emissaries and the
100
WITHIN THE PURDAH
private secretary to His Highness the Maharajah, a
copy of which I here insert :
(An exact copy of original letter.)
Duncan Road, 21st May, ’88.
Dr. Miss Armstrong, M.D., Esq.,
Pyn Hospital, Khetwady.
Sir :
I have the honour to solicit your goodself that please make ar-
rangements for going to Ajmer e ; because I have received the
telegram to-day from Ajmere ; so I beg to enclose its copy here
for your kind perusal.
Will you kindl oblige me by letting me know that when your
goodself have time after 4 o’clock this evening that I also may
come to your Hospital.
Please drop a line or two about your journey settlement and
oblige. Excuse trouble.
I am, sir,
yours most obdy,
Lachmi Narain, Private Secretary
to H. H. the Maharaja
of Bhinai in Ajmere.
FROM BOMBAY TO AJMERE
In India, as in almost any part of Europe, one may
travel first class, second class, intermediate, or third
class, according to the proportions of the individual
purse. The first class affords every comfort and
luxury which the most exacting could desire, and
is proportionately expensive. The first-class coach
may open at the end or at the side. In either
case before the train starts the doors are locked,
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES
101
and the first-class passenger is a prisoner in an
elegant apartment, with broad, long, cushioned
seats and a folding table, which can be extended at
lunch time and closed afterward. There is also a
very comfortable toilet room, provided with every
convenience. On either side are the ordinary rail-
way coach windows, provided with close shutters,
which are usually kept tightly fastened during the
hot season. In addition to these there is a large
round hole in the center of each side of the car.
This hole is filled with a thick, solid revolving
wheel made of cuscus tatti , a fragrant grass or root
peculiar to India, the lower half of which dips down
into a deep trough filled with water. The wheel
has a crank by which it may be turned around and
around, thus saturating the whole of the cuscus.
The hot air from without, passing through this
wet, dripping grass, is cooled, and the traveler
in the first-class compartment is comparatively
comfortable. In some cases the cuscus tatti is ar-
ranged differently, the water dripping from above.
The second-class carriage is similar to the first-
class, except that the carriage is somewhat old and
worn and less elegant. It has, however, all the
comforts of the first, and is provided with every
convenience, while the expense involved is only
half that of the first-class. Very few people in
India travel first class — a native prince, or rajah, or
some of the high English government officials,
perhaps. The majority of the wealthy, even, travel
second class, while the masses — thousands and
102
WITHIN THE PURDAH
thousands of poor people — travel third class ; which
is little, if any, better than a cattle car in Amer-
ica. Here the natives, with their filth, their food,
their bundles, well-nigh innumerable, their huq-
quas, and their babies, are packed together like
cattle in a stall. The intermediate compartment,
however, is an improvement upon the third-class,
though far from being comfortable. It is a small
place, about four by eight feet in size, having two
narrow, straight, bare benches running lengthwise
of the compartment — which is crosswise of the car.
A narrow door opens at each end of the compart-
ment. On either side of these doors there is a very
small, narrow window. The floor is, of course,
bare, and the ceiling very low. Altogether the
place is small, crowded, dusty, close, hot, and very
uncomfortable.
The expense of an intermediate ticket is just
double that of a third-class and half the price of a
second-class ticket, and by some it is laughingly
designated “the missionary first-class,” because the
missionaries usually travel on an intermediate
ticket. When, however, a physician is called to
the home of a wealthy native that physician must
travel first class if he or she would collect a first-
class fee. If you take a second-class railroad pas-
sage to the home of a wealthy patient, that wealthy
patient will invariably conclude that you are a
second-class doctor. If you travel intermediate or
third class, you will be regarded as a third-class
doctor, or less than that.
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES 103
In Bengal native baboos who have attended the
Calcutta Medical College for one term, and who
have failed in their examination, abandon the idea
of any further study of medicine, return to their
homes, and hang out a sign upon which is written
words to the following effect: “ Dr. Baboo ;
failed first year ; fee, four annas” — that is, eight cents
per visit. If he is so fortunate as to have success-
fully passed his first examination, he continues an-
other term ; and if he fail in the second examination,
he will return to his home and announce himself as
follows: “Dr. Baboo ; failed second year;
fee, eight annas ” — that is, sixteen cents per visit.
If he be able to get through the second examina-
tion and pass on to the end of the third year, and
then fail, he will establish himself in practice with
great confidence, and his sign will read: “Dr.
Baboo ; failed third year ; fee, one rupee ” —
about thirty-three cents per visit. Thus is a physi-
cian’s professional fee graded according to his
qualifications. If you charge a small fee to a rich
native, he will consider that you are a second or a
third-class doctor. The larger your fee, the more
expensive your method of travel, the larger your
retinue of servants, the more trouble you require
at the hands of your patients, the better your qual-
ifications are supposed to be. A first-class doctor,
it is commonly supposed, will charge a first-class
fee, will travel in a first-class railroad carriage, and
will be in all respects first-class, requiring first-
class service from all his attendants. Therefore,
104
WITHIN THE PURDAH
while doing an immense amount of gratuitous
practice for the poor, and carrying on a free dis-
pensary for the lowest-caste people in Bombay,
yet I charged a handsome fee when attending the
rich native, and traveled first class on my way to
his home.
Ajmere is a very ancient city of Rajputana,
which is the capital of the British district, about
two hundred and twenty-eight miles by rail south-
west of Agra. It is situated in a very beautiful
and picturesque rocky valley, and is surrounded by
a stone wall, which has three large gateways. It
contains several mosques and temples of immense
architecture. The Dargah, or tomb of Knaja, the
Mussulman saint, is much venerated. Many of
the streets of Ajmere are broad and contain fine
residences.
In 1891 Ajmere had a population of 68,843, °f
whom about 26,683 were Hindus, and 18,702 Mo-
hammedans.
The journey from Bombay to Ajmere, a distance
by rail of about six hundred and fifty miles, was a
very tedious and trying one during the month of
May, which is one of the hot months in this part
of India. Fortunately, however, we arrived after
sunset and were taken to a well-kept English hotel,
where everything was done for our comfort. Huge
punkas swinging from the ceiling of every room
were kept in constant motion. Deep verandas sur-
rounded the entire house. Every outside door had
an extra hot-weather door, composed of solid cuscus
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES 105
tatti, thickly woven. Upon each of these doors a
bucket of cold water was thrown at short intervals
during the day. In this way the atmosphere of the
rooms was made endurably cool, although the heat
outside was so great as to render it hazardous for
one to leave the house after seven o’clock in the
morning or before six in the evening ; and even at
seven o’clock p. m., taking a drive up and down the
streets of Ajmere, the air strikes the cheek like the
heated blast from a furnace, parching the lips and
rendering the eyes, nostrils, and mouth dry.
A CURIOUS MEDICO-LEGAL CONSULTATION
The day for the consultation arrived ; and at the
appointed hour we were ushered into the presence
of His Highness Saght Sing, the Maharajah of
Bhinai District. He seemed in every way a very
ordinary Hindu. He was not acquainted with the
English language, and so, of course, I conversed
with him through my interpreter, whom I had taken
with me from Bombay. The medico-legal question
related to a young son, about a year old. The
Maharajah claimed this child to be the son of his
second legal wife ; but the Maharajah’s brother
disputed the matter. The Maharajah had been
married to this particular one of his chief wives for
many years, but she had nevere borne him any
children ; and the Maharajah’s title, estate, and all
honors and wealth therewith connected seemed
106
WITHIN THE PURDAH
destined to go to his nephew, his brother’s son.
At length a male child was born in the home of
this Maharajah, and he announced that Her High-
ness Sarupkanwar Bai, the Maharani of Bhagore,
his second legal wife, had borne him this son.
Doubts as to the truth of this assertion were enter-
tained from the beginning by his brother and
others. At length the matter was brought to trial.
Several medico-legal consultations had been held
previous to this occasion, but in each particular
case the several doctors had disagreed in their
diagnoses, and their certificates had proven unsatis-
factory. On the occasion of which we are writing
the lady physicians from the Punjab, Calcutta, and
other parts of India, who were expected, either dis-
appointed the Maharajah altogether or arrived too
late for the consultation. Consequently I was
obliged to conduct the examination alone as, of
course, the gentlemen physicians were not allowed
to see the queen nor to enter the apartment which
was occupied by her.
Her Highness Sarupkanwar Bai, the Maharani, is
a very tall, large-framed, and heavy Hindu woman.
I found her in a rather large room, which was, how-
ever, entirely without furniture. It had a bare ce-
ment floor, with mud-plastered walls and ceiling.
The place was so dark as to make it difficult to conduct
a satisfactory examination. The queen -was sur-
rounded by a large company of native women —
friends, relatives, personal attendants, and servants.
She was dressed as she appears in the accompan}’-
Her Highness Sarupkanwar Bai, The Maharani of Bhagore
(A Hindu Queen)
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES
109
ing portrait, and held in her arms the young heir
whom she claimed to be her son. She related to
me the sad and pitiful story of her life. She told
me that she had been sterile, and that for this
reason her husband had hated and abused her in
the most cruel manner.
As I conducted the examination to the best of
my ability under existing circumstances, Dr. Dim-
mock, who had accompanied me from Bombay,
stood outside of the locked and bolted door and
called to me from time to time, asking the medical
questions relating to the case which it was neces-
sary for us to record, I shouting back the answers as
rapidly as I was able to ascertain the true condition,
my interpreter also taking notes.
When the consultation was all over a lady physi-
cian from the Punjab arrived on the scene. She
had delayed in order to obtain her fee in advance,
about which there had been a great dispute.
After returning to our hotel I dictated to my in-
terpreter the certificate, describing the condition of
our patient as I had found it, and Dr. Dimmock
signed the certificate with me. I never heard the
result of the trial, and do not know whether or not
the young son was proven to be the rightful heir to
the Maharajah’s title and estate.
On account of the late arrival of the lady physi-
cian from the Punjab Dr. Dimmock and myself
were detained in Ajmere longer than was at first
arranged for, being away from our homes in Bom-
bay for a period of five days, instead of three, as
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was at first anticipated. In consideration of this
undue detention in Ajmere His Highness the Ma-
harajah paid me a further sum of eight hundred
rupees, in addition to the one thousand two hun-
dred and thirty-one rupees which I had received in
advance. This sum of eight hundred rupees he
sent to Bombay for me during my absence in
Hyderabad, as will appear in the following letter
from Lachmi Narain, his private secretary:
(An exact copy of original letter.)
Bhinai, 15th June, 1888.
Rajputana.
Dr. Miss Saleni Armstrong, M.D., Esq., Bombay.
Sir : I have the honour to inform you that, I had been to Bombay,
after your leaving Ajmere, in the beginning of this month ; but I
am very sorry that I had not pleasure of seeing you, as your goodself
was at Haidrabad.
I had given 800 eight hundreds to Dr. Dim mock & took the
certificate.
I hope I shall have the pleasure of seeing you there in the mean-
time ; if God will help me.
Please give my best regards to Miss L. L. Seity your asisstt &
also to your interpreter.
I hope your goodself are in the best enjoyment of good health.
1 shall be more lucky to hear from you about your welfare. Please
drop a line or two & oblige.
Rao Sahib with kind regards.
I have the honor to be Sir, Yours most obor
< Kindi use j Lachmi Narain, Pt Secretary to H. H.
\ for address i of Bhinai Distt. Ajmere,
Rajputana.
P. S. Kindi also send the receipt othe sum of Rupies 1231
which was given by me to your goodself, for your fees of Ajmere
Journey.
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES 111
A PROFESSIONAL VISIT TO THE HAREM OF
A MOHAMMEDAN PRINCE
Within an hour after my return to Bombay
from Ajmere I received a telegram from His
Excellency Nawab Khurshed Jah, of Hyderabad,
Deccan, calling me to that city for the purpose of
treating his favorite wife, the “Mad Begam,” as
she is familiarly called.
The Nawab is a Mohammedan prince of great
influence, being second only to the Nizam himself
in power, in position, in wealth, and in influence.
Hyderabad is a characteristic native Mohamme-
dan city, and is the capital of the Nizam’s dominion
of the same name, a great native or feudatory
state, which occupies the larger part of the Deccan,
or central plateau of Southern India, situated be-
tween the provinces of Bombay and Madras ; and
a distance of about three hundred and ninety miles
by rail northwest of the latter city.
Hyderabad is six miles in circumference, and is
surrounded by a stone wall, flanked by bastions.
In 1891 it had a population of 41 5,039. It is one
of the principal strongholds of Mohammedanism
in India, and has many mosques. Hyderabad
stands on the right bank of the Musi, and is 1,700
feet above the sea. The population consists of
diverse elements, though nearly all Mohammedans,
and is full of warlike spirit, nearly every man,
woman, and child being armed with swords, knives,
and daggers of various Indian device. It is said
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that upon very slight provocation these Moham-
medans will thrust a dagger to the heart of a friend
or neighbor. A foreigner found within the city
walls is liable to be murdered for the sake of a gold
or silver ornament upon his person or a few rupees
in his pocket. Murder is a common occurrence in
Hyderabad, and the guilty are seldom brought to
justice. On the day of our arrival, however, we
saw seventeen Hyderabad men with their feet in
chains and their hands fastened behind them.
They had been arrested by the English govern-
ment, were guarded by English officers, and were
being taken into Bombay for trial under charge of
murder.
It is really hazardous for any foreigner — English,
European, American, Hindu, or non-Mohammedan
— to pass inside the walls of Hyderabad city except
under the immediate protection of armed soldiers
wearing the uniform of the Nizam or of some v'ell-
known Hyderabad prince. Indeed, many instances
are recorded in which foreigners have ventured
within the city walls unguarded and never been
seen again.
The railroad station is situated outside of Hyder-
abad city, as the railway is not allowed to enter
that native center.
Upon my arrival I was met at the railway station
by the Nawab’s servants. For my conveyance he
had sent three splendid English phaetons, the
principal one of which was drawn by foiir thorough-
bred English horses. The Nawab had evidently
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES 113
expected that I would bring with me a large retinue
of servants, many personal attendants, and a large
amount of baggage. Instead of which I had only
my interpreter, and, as for baggage, only my small
medicine and instrument bags ; so that the one fine
carriage, drawn by the four horses, was quite sufficient
to accommodate us both with all our luggage ; and
the other two fine phaetons, with their four pran-
cing steeds, followed on behind empty. There were
to each carriage two coachmen, dressed in fine uni-
form, two footmen, and many soldiers, attired in
the very handsome and striking uniform peculiar
to the Nawab’s soldiers ; so that we had soldiers
running on ahead, following behind, and running
along at either side of our carriage.
The poor natives who thronged the streets
seemed to recognize the Nawab’s soldiers and fine
equipages, and the way was quickly cleared for us
in advance. After driving through many of the
chief streets of the city we finally came to the great
wall which surrounds the Nawab’s estate. The
armed soldiers who stood guard at the great gate-
way in this wall were ready with low salaams to
admit us to his excellency’s spacious grounds, and
presently we drew up in front of the broad steps
leading up to the Nawab’s European palace. These
steps were like those of a court house or some large
public building rather than the entrance to a private
residence. The house itself is a large two-story
building, with great, deep verandas surrounding
it on all sides. Several servants, in their pure
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white native garments and scarlet sashes, waited
on the front steps to receive us, and the chief of
these, the butler, ushered us into the spacious hall
of the second floor, and left us alone to make our-
selves at home. Before leaving us, however, he
acquainted us with the fact that this building was
kept expressly for the entertainment of the Nawab’s
English and European guests; and that the place
was ours while we remained in Hyderabad, supplied
with a retinue of servants awaiting our orders.
THE NAWAB'S EUROPEAN PALACE
It is an immense place ; the ceilings are very
lofty and the rooms exceedingly large. The entire
palace is European in style and furnishing — at least
as far as oriental ideas permit. Any European,
however, would recognize native taste in the selec-
tion of the English furniture — sofas, chairs, and
other furniture upholstered in the most brilliant
blue, green, purple, orange, or scarlet velvet of the
finest quality ; the carpets, brussels or velvet, of
the most brilliant tints; mirrors extending from
the floor to the lofty ceiling, and many feet in
width, surrounded by massive gilt frames; chande-
liers reaching down from the ceiling with almost
innumerable prismatic pendants dangling and shin-
ing in the light.
The butler glides noiselessly into the room and
announces khana (dinner) ready, bowing low in a
respectful salaam. The great dining room is equally
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES 115
elaborate and gaudy in its furnishing. The long
dining table, however, is neatly and tastefully
spread. No food is upon it except the fruit, and it
is very tastefully and elaborately adorned with
flowers in pretty English vases.
As soon as we have taken our seats the soup is
placed before us, and after this follows one course
after another, each of which we taste — the fish, the
roast and vegetables, curry and rice, etc., etc., until,
finally, the pudding and the fruit; after which, in
real English fashion, the coffee is brought. Dinner
over, my interpreter and I seat ourselves in the
large front veranda, where we can enjoy the beauti-
ful grounds which surround this European palace.
The palace is surrounded by many armed soldiers,
who walk up and down around the house, night and
day, to protect the place and us. They are clad in
the handsome uniform peculiar to the Nawab’s
soldiers.
HIS EXCELLENCY NAWAB KHURSHED JAH
As we sit upon the veranda we see coming across
the lawn several native servants of the Nawab bear-
ing trays in their hands, and as they approach nearer
we observe that these trays are laden with fruit of
many kinds, fine and luscious. Leaving their san-
dals on the ground, they mount the great steps, and
coming to where we sit, they present the fruit, bow-
ing low in a respectful salaam.
Later on we see other servants comfng, bearing
trays laden with flowers, and the above-described
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ceremony is gone through with by these also. Once
again we see servants coming from the Nawab.
This time they bring lai'ge portraits — one represent-
ing the Nawab in his royal dress, another represent-
ing the Nawab in his everyday costume counting his
Mohammedan prayer beads and surrounded by his
bodyguard of nine men, and in the third picture
we have the full-length portrait of the Nawab’s only
son and heir, His Excellency the Nawab Shums-ud-
Dawlah Shums-ul-Moolk.
An hour or so later His Excellency the Nawab
approaches, followed closely by his bodyguard armed
with many knives, swords, and daggers of various
native device. The Nawab is a short, somewhat
corpulent, elderly gentleman, with gray hair, kind,
intelligent eyes and a face with very few lines, but
which you would judge to be the face of one pos-
sessed of much true refinement and strength of
character. He is dressed in pure white garments,
including a small piigrah. His feet are bare, but
as he crosses the lawn he wears sandals, which he
will drop from his feet before he steps upon the
veranda of his European palace.
After a very kind and somewhat flattering greet-
ing his excellency describes the many painful symp-
toms of his favorite wife’s very serious and com-
plicated diseases, and declares that she is so dear to
him that he would gladly spend all his fortune for
the sake of seeing her fully restored to health. He
would willingly feed her upon diamonds, rubies, and
pearls if he were sure that such a diet would prove
His Excellency Nawab Khurshed Jah, of Hyderabad, Deccan
In His Royal Dress
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES
119
beneficial. I assure him that these precious jewels,
though beautiful to look upon, and great in their
intrinsic value, are yet quite worthless as articles
of diet, and could afford his wife no nourishment.
After dwelling at some length upon the exact physi-
cal and mental condition, past history, and present
symptoms of his wife, he invites us to visit her in
her zenana palace. In order to do this we must
pass through several lawns, gardens, alleys between
high walls, courtyards, and gateways, the latter be-
ing guarded by armed soldiers.
At length we come to a small, low gate in a great
wall. This gate is guarded by women. As we
halt here the bodyguard of his excellency the
Nawab quietly retires, and we are left alone with
the Nawab and the women in front of the little gate.
The Nawab now fumbles among the folds of his
white garments, and presently produces a huge brass
key, with which he unlocks the immense brass pad-
lock by means of which this small gate is made fast.
The gate swings open, and the Nawab invites me to
pass through. In order to do this I must step up
and bow down — almost crawling through this hole
in the wall, as it really is. My interpreter crawls
through after me, and the Nawab himself follows.
The Nawab now closes this little gate, and fastens
it on the inner side with the same great brass pad-
lock and brass key which were used on the outside ;
and thus we stand, prisoners, within one of the
zenana homes of this native prince.
Looking about we see that we are in a somewhat
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large courtyard — possibly one hundred by one hun-
dred and fifty feet in size. The walls surrounding
us are very lofty, so that it would be impossible for
any man to scale them. They are stone or brick, I
do not know which, plastered over with mud.
At the end near where we entered there are
several small rooms, which are evidently occupied
by the women-servants who throng the place. The
two long sides have opening into them many great
doors, like old-fashioned barn doors, which are
fastened at the top with huge padlocks — all of them
being now closed and locked. Each of these doors,
as I learned afterward, opens into a tiny dark room
of about ten or twelve feet square, having no win-
dows and no furniture of any kind. The floor,
walls, and ceiling are plastered over with mud.
Each particular one of these rooms belongs to some
one or more of the Nawab’s one hundred concu-
bines, who reside within this enclosure.
The space between the walls — the open court — is
very much littered. It has no grass on the dusty
ground, which is rough and irregular. In the cen-
ter there is the relic of what must have been at one
time a fountain, but it has long since fallen into
disuse, and is now only a wreck. In one corner
may be seen the skeleton of an old tree. At the
further end of this inclosure there is a deep veranda
— so deep that it requires many pillars here and
there underneath, at short intervals, to support the
roof. The floor of the veranda is covered with a
grass matting, woven by hand from reed grass.
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES 121
The whole veranda seems thronging with women-
folk — old and young, handsome and plain, large
and small, strong and decrepit — one hundred and
one, all counted. We cross the open courtyard and
approach the veranda. The Nawab drops his
sandals from his feet, and steps upon the matted
floor of the veranda. My interpreter, who wears
European dress, sits down and removes her shoes
and stockings from her feet, intimating to me that
I am expected to do the same. I hesitate, and my
interpreter explains to the Nawab that I never go
with bare feet in any home, whereupon he courte-
ously requests me to allow my shoes and stockings
to remain upon my feet, which I am glad to do.
The Nawab now takes us to the center of the
veranda, where, sitting with crossed legs upon the
floor, we find the little “ Mad Begam.” Begam is
a title and means princess, or the wife of a prince
or nawab. The one hundred concubines stand
about in respectful silence ; they never sit in the
presence of the Nawab. The little princess on the
floor is introduced by the Nawab, and I take her
hand in American fashion. The Nawab now seats
himself on the floor by her side, and invites my in-
terpreter and myself to do the same ; but, observing
a hesitancy on my part, the Nawab immediately
arises, orders a chair to be brought, and stands
until it comes ; this through respect for me. After
much hurrying to and fro, and much vain search-
ing, the little gate having been opened and a
servant sent elsewhere in search of a chair, an old,
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broken kitchen chair is finally brought from some-
where. It then apparently occurs to the Nawab
that it is not courteous for him to sit upon the floor
while I occupy a chair; and, therefore, he com-
mands that a second chair be brought. After
another delay of equal length and confusion an-
other chair is finally produced, and we sit down
comfortably near the little Begam ; the Nawab,
however, drawing his feet up and sitting with his
legs crossed in native style, as he would do upon
the floor.
HER EXCELLENCY THE BEGAM SAHIB
The “ Mad Begam,” as she is familiarly called
by the Nawab’s almost numberless servants, per-
sonal attendants, concubines and wives, is a short,
somewhat stout little woman of about forty. She is
not a pretty woman, but has, nevertheless, a very
attractive face and evidently a strong personality.
Her wealth of long black hair, fine as silk, hangs in
two straight braids down her back, nearly reaching
the floor as she sits. Her great brown eyes are full
of a strange, hopeless sadness and longing. Her
countenance rarely changes in its expression, which
is that of settled, hopeless melancholy. She is not
originally a high-caste woman, nor has she always
been a princess, nor always lived in a wealthy fam-
ily, nor has she always been confined in a zenana
home. She is a woman of low caste by birth, and
of poor parentage. In her childhood she was a serv-
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES 123
ant to one of the Nawab’s chief legal wives, and he
fell in love with the little low-caste servant girl, who,
in those days, was allowed to run out and in freely
and without constraint. He then took her to be his
wife — to be, indeed, one of his four chief wives ; for
every Mohammedan is allowed to have four, each of
whom is supposed to be a proper and legal wife. He
may have many concubines also. Of course, when
this little servant girl was exalted to the position of
a princess, the chief wife of a Mohammedan prince,
she was then doomed to close seclusion and confine-
ment of the strictest kind in a zenana home. The
first wife, who was this little girl’s mistress in the
beginning, became madly jealous, and soon there-
after died, it is said, of a broken heart.
I have a talk with my little patient, the “Mad
Begam,” and she seems to grow more and more
interested in what I have to say, asking many ques-
tions. When I sing, however, she weeps much and
finally begs me to desist, declaring that she cannot
endure it; and this notwithstanding the fact that
she cannot understand a word of the song, which is
in my own English tongue.
ANOTHER STRANGE MEDICAL CON-
SULTATION
After making a very careful and thorough ex-
amination of my little patient I explain to the Nawab
that his wife has no organic disease ; that her heart,
lungs, liver, and all the organs of her body are quite
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sound ; that the distressing symptoms which he has
observed are of purely nervous origin and are the
result of her manner of living— seclusion, lack of
exercise, monotony, want of fresh air and sunshine,
etc. The Nawab declares that we must have a con-
sultation at once; and he immediately sends a serv-
ant to call the six native physicians who are in his
constant and exclusive employ. These men have
been educated in England, are thoroughly qualified,
and are his family physicians, receiving from him a
handsome yearly salary. They come immediately,
in answer to his summons, and wait outside of the
little gate until he shall be ready to admit them.
Ninety-six of the one hundred concubines now
flee away, each of them hiding herself in the par-
ticular little dark padlocked room which she claims
as her own, or perhaps shares with another. The
remaining four of the concubines bring four im-
mense rugs, and each of the four takes hold of one
corner of two rugs, standing around the little patient
in such a manner, holding the rugs above their
heads, as to conceal entirely from outside view not
only the little patient who sits in the center between
them on the floor, but also their own persons.
When these preliminary arrangements are satis-
factorily adjusted the Nawab admits the six native
family physicians through the little padlocked gate
into the zenana courtyard ; and they all cross over to
the veranda, drop their sandals, and come and take
their seats on the floor near my chair. I then kneel
down on the floor, just outside of the hanging rugs,
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES
125
put my hand under the lower margin, and cover-
ing the tiny hand of my little patient with my own
large palm, I draw her wee wrist to the edge and
place the finger of the doctors, each in turn, on the
pulse of my patient, until all have an opportunity to
count the pulsation for themselves, and this with-
out seeing any part of the Begam’s person.
The native of India takes it for granted that
physicians are so clever and so skillful in the prac-
tice of their profession that they are able to know
and understand the exact condition of the brain,
heart, lungs, spleen, liver, and every other organ of
the body by the simple heart-throb as felt at the
wrist. Fortunately, however, for the doctors in this
consultation, I had been able to make a more thor-
ough examination, and could tell them the real con-
dition, as I had found it by a minute, careful, and
thorough search. When I had given this full ex-
planation we all agreed in our diagnosis and pro-
nounced the disease hysteria. This was not so
difficult a matter as the selection of appropriate and
acceptable remedies proved to be.
I had brought with me from Bombay my little
medicine bag, containing a variety of useful drugs.
On this occasion, however, I found it quite useless.
His Excellency the Nawab Khurshed Jah would not,
under any consideration, use one particle of medi-
cine from my bag. It had been compounded by
Christian hands and contaminated by Christian
handling, and would therefore break the caste of his
wife and family. He had a huge medicine chest of
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his own, which was now wheeled out from one of
the dark rooms adjoining this veranda. We find
that this medicine chest contains almost every phar-
maceutical preparation and remedial agent named in
the British Pharmacopoeia.
I suggest a simple, efficient remedy, which I think
will meet the case and allay the most distressing
nervous symptoms. The Nawab immediately de-
clares that he knows the drug, he has tried it, and it is
of no avail. I suggest another remedy, and another,
and another, with the same result. Indeed I soon find
that the Nawab is well acquainted with almost every
drug contained in his medicine chest, and that they
have all been tried and proven valueless, at least in
this particular case. I then suggest a combination
of drugs which, fortunately, has never been tried.
This the native physicians in consultation all in-
dorse, and the Nawab agrees to give it a trial. Of
course I must compound the medicine, as I have been
called all the way from Bombay to attend this par-
ticular case. The medicine is therefore prepared
by my hand, under the immediate eye of the Nawab
and his six doctors ; each of whom watches me with
the keenest and most critical eye to make sure that
I do not, by any sleight of hand or otherwise, intro-
duce any drug of my own which I may have con-
cealed about my person, or any water or liquid of
any kind which has been contaminated by the touch
of a Christian hand.
Formerly it was the custom in this home, and in
all wealthy high-caste native homes, to prepare
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES
127
at the same time two doses, exactly alike, one of
which was to be first taken by the doctor in attend-
ance. Then, after a period of two hours or such a
matter, if no ominous symptoms manifested them-
selves, the remaining dose was administered to the
patient. Before my time, fortunately for me, this
custom had been objected to by some attending
physician, and, as a result, two of the concubines
had been condemned to take the trial dose. There-
fore on this occasion I was instructed to compound
three powders instead of one. We had decided upon
powders, because any liquid which has been touched
by Christians or by any person of low caste can never
be allowed to pass the lips of a high-caste native.
Even a pill must have some liquid “ sticking stuff ”
to hold it together, and therefore, under the circum-
stances, a powder was the only remedy that could
be administered. Three powders I make, weighing
and dividing and mixing each in precisely the same
manner, and in the same proportions. This done,
the six native doctors are allowed to withdraw ; they
pass out through the little gate, and we are again
locked in. Now the rugs are dropped and two of
the concubines come forward to receive one each of
the powders. This they do without any apparent
trepidation. I must now wait two hours at least to
watch the result of these doses. At the expiration
of this time, as no dire symptoms manifest them-
selves, with great fear and trepidation the Nawab
permits me to administer the remaining powder to
his favorite wife, the “ Mad Begam.” After this I
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must, of course, remain for several hours to watch the
result. During this season of waiting and watching
the Nawab frequently interrogates his wife as to her
feelings. At length he becomes much agitated, be-
gins to wring his hands, paces the floor in great agi-
tation, weeps, counts his beads in prayer, falls on
his face in an agony of anxiety and distress; and,
finally, coming to me, he implores me to do some-
thing for the relief of his dear wife. He is sure she
must be suffering. He can tell, by the sad cast of
her countenance, that she is ill and in pain.
I am still somewhat of a stranger in India ; and
not being well acquainted with the ways and meth-
ods and characteristics of the natives, I believe this
man to be entirely sincere and honest, and greatly
alarmed, and so I assure him that there is no or-
ganic disease upon his wife ; that she is not in any
sense seriously ill ; that the nervous trouble from
which she suffers is due purely and solely to her
secluded, inactive, monotonous life; that she may
suffer in this way for many, many years, but that
she can never die from this disease. To my great
astonishment His Excellency the Nawab does not
appear to be relieved in the least degree. He weeps
the more, wringing his hands, pacing the floor,
prostrating himself on the ground, and groaning
aloud. Finally he comes to me again and declares
that we must have another consultation. The cere-
monies above described are gone through with again,
and again, and again. I remain in Hyderabad for two
weeks. During this time I meet the six native
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES
129
doctors in consultation several times each day, al-
ways in precisely the same manner and always
with precisely the same result.
The little “Mad Begam Sahib” proved to be a
very gentle, sweet, attractive little woman, possess-
ing much real strength of character, and my sym-
pathies were all with her. Who could blame her
if, amid such surroundings, she had grown restive,
fanciful, morose, irritable, jealous, ill-tempered
even, and hysterical ? The wonder grew upon me
that she did not under such circumstances go rav-
ing crazy mad, as you and I would surely do if im-
prisoned, idle, helpless, and in all respects in her
situation. The fact is she was not “ mad.” Her
reason had never forsaken her nor her mind lost its
equilibrium in any degree. She was only nervous,
irritable, jealous, and hysterical — unhappy, as all
zenana women must be.
From morning until night, through all the days,
weeks, months, and years of her life she is expected
to sit quietly upon this veranda, without any occu-
pation whatever. As intimated on foregoing pages,
she cannot read nor write, sew, knit, weave, nor en-
gage in any domestic occupation whatever. She is
not permitted to bathe her own person nor dress her
own hair nor make her own toilet. Has she not a
hundred slave girls to do her bidding? They per-
form every service that she requires and wait upon
her continually ; she may only take the curry and
rice, which is her sole diet, in her fingers from the
brass plate to her mouth. She has no toys to oc-
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cupy her attention, no games with which to amuse
herself and those about her, no pictures to look
upon.
At one time, as the Nawab himself informed me,
he conceived the idea of erecting an art gallery for
the amusement of his wives and concubines. This
he did. The great picture hall was lighted from
above of necessity, as it must be a zenana place.
He sent to England for portraits of the royal family
and many other distinguished personages, and gath-
ered from many sources portraits of eminent indi-
viduals, until he had a large collection, enough to
cover the walls of his art gallery. When all things
were ready he invited his wives to visit his new art
gallery. They did so; but as soon as they beheld
the faces of men and women hanging upon the
walls, having never before seen a picture, they took
fright and fled away in alarm, imagining that they
had seen ghosts and that these pictures must surely
be able to speak, to grasp, and to pursue. Never
again could the Nawab persuade any of his wives
to return to the “ haunted hall.”
THE NAWAB’S SIX PALACES
Ostensibly and professedly I had been called from
Bombay to Hyderabad for the express and sole pur-
pose of attending upon and treating this favorite
wife of His Excellency the Nawab. In truth, how-
ever, I did attend other members of the Nawab's
great family.
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES
131
In the late evening, unattended by his bodyguard
of nine men, without the knowledge of any of his
personal attendants, without the knowledge of
his favorite wife or of any of the one hundred con-
cubines that serve her in the capacity of slaves,
without the knowledge of any individual, save
that of my interpreter and myself, I was conducted
by the Nawab, quietly and stealthily, to visit his
three other chief wives in his three other zenana
palaces.
I found each of these zenana palaces precisely
like the one I first visited, and which I have de-
scribed, where his favorite wife resides. I found
each one of these three chief wives surrounded by
one hundred slave girls, who are the Nawab’s con-
cubines; so that His Excellency the Nawab Khur-
shed Jah has no less than four principal legal wives
and four hundred lesser wives or concubines, each
one of the four chief wives being attended upon
and surrounded by one hundred of the lesser
wives or concubines, who serve her as slaves in
a zenana palace of her own like the one first de-
scribed.
These other three wives, however, treated the
Nawab with greater respect, apparently, than did
his favorite wife, the “ Mad Begam.” None of the
three ever sat down in his presence, though two of
them were really ill and not properly able to sit up
at all. To these three wives I was permitted to ad-
minister my own medicine from my own medicine
bag and without consultation or ceremony of any
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WITHIN THE PURDAH
kind. I was, however, instructed to maintain ab-
solute secrecy in regard to these visits, and to re-
gard the whole matter as strictly confidential.
In addition to the four zenana palaces and the
European palace already described, His Excellency
Nawab Khurshed Jah has a private palace of his
own, where he delights to entertain his English,
European, and American guests. We had the
pleasure of visiting this palace also. It is furnished
in a more elaborate style and more gorgeously than
the European palace ; but it is not in itself so large
as the former nor has it so many rooms.
In addition to the gorgeously upholstered furni-
ture, chandeliers, huge mirrors, etc., the Nawab’s
private palace contains many curious articles which
in themselves are interesting specimens of the lavish
and unparalleled extravagance of a wealthy na-
tive of India. To illustrate, a clock in the
Nawab’s palace, reaching from the floor to the
ceiling and studded with jewels, cost him, as the
Nawab himself assured me, several lakhs of ru-
pees. He also showed me music boxes brought
from England which cost him fabulous sums of
money.
Altogether we visited six palaces within the great
walls which surround the Nawab’s estate — our
zenana palaces, the European palace, and the
Nawab’s private palace, where he entertains his
foreign guests, the two latter being surrounded by
beautiful lawns containing rare trees, plants, and
fountains.
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES 133
A DIET OF COSTLY GEMS
At the expiration of our two weeks’ stay in Hy-
derabad the Nawab paid me the professional fee
agreed upon and begged me to close my hospital in
Bombay, settle my business there, and arrange to
remain in Hyderabad as family physician to his
household. He offered me a salary of one thousand
rupees per month, together with the exclusive use
of his European palace free of rental, and all its
staff of servants to be paid by himself. I declined
his offer, because I loved the work for the poor
which I was doing in Bombay and because I love
medicine. Everything in connection with the
practice of my profession is a pure delight to me.
I could not feel willing to spend my life in the
manner in which I had spent the last two weeks.
I was not willing to act a farce, nor to make the
practice of my loved profession a mere play, and so
I returned to my home, to my hospital, and to my
charity practice in Bombay.
Later on, when the Nawab visited Bombay, I met
several of the native doctors in his employ whom I
had met in consultation during my visit to Hyder-
abad. One of them informed me that after my
departure from Hyderabad the Nawab had called a
native doctor from a distant city, to whom he made
the same remark in regard to feeding his favorite
Begam upon jewels which I had heard from him.
This native doctor replied that he was delighted to
hear the Nawab express himself thus, as pulverized
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gems was just the remedy that would surely avail
to cure her disease. He had feared to advise such
a course of diet an account of the enormous expense
which it would involve, but if his excellency were
really willing to expend so much money for the sake
of restoring his wife’s health, her recovery would
be certain. When the Nawab assured the physician
of his willingness to do this the doctor immediately
returned to the distant city and procured a machine
for grinding diamonds, rubies, and pearls. Upon
his return to Hyderabad the jewels were dropped
into a little opening in the top of this machine ; a
crank was then turned and grinding ensued.
Presently a shining powder was emitted from a
certain troughlike exit, and this shining powder
was divided into doses and administered to the
favorite Begam at specified intervals.
Doubtless the diamonds, rubies, and pearls
dropped straight into the pocket of the native
doctor, and, most probably, the Nawab suspected
the truth, for he was too much of a native himself
not to see through such a deception ; but for the
sake of deceiving his wife, for the sake of making
her believe that he was wasting his fortune upon
her because she, and she only, was the one woman
who held his heart’s best affection, therefore he
was willing to seem to be deceived himself and go
to the enormous expense necessarily involved.
During this same visit of the Nawab Khurshed
Jah to Bombay I received from him a box of Hy-
derabad weapons, together with a brief note, bear-
IN THE ZENANAHOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES
135
ing the Nawab’s coat of arms and his own signature,
in the Hindustani language.
(An exact copy of original letter.)
Mahalusumri Station, 21st February, 1888.
To Dr. Armstrong, M.D., Khartwodi.
Dear Madam : Once, while you were in Hyderabad, I remem-
ber, you expressed a desire for some of the Hyderabad weapons,
so I have send for some of the arms from Hyderabad for you,
which I send herewith per bearer. I hope you will like them.
Hoping you are in the enjoyment of good health,
Yours sincerely,
Khurshed Jah.
HIS EXCELLENCY DEW AN LUCHMAN DASS,
EX-PRIME MINISTER OF KASHMIR
On the sixth day of December, 1889, I received
a telegram from His Excellency Dewan Luchman
Dass, ex-Prime Minister of Kashmir, calling me to
the native town of Eminabad to attend upon his
two wives, Dalie and Molie Luchman Dass.
A run of two hours by rail from Lahore, Punjab,
brings me to the small railroad station of Kamoki.
Here two of the Dewan’s English menservants —
Air. Gerard, the Dewan’s private secretary, and Mr.
Bowden, his horse trainer — meet me, and I am
driven in a fine, large English carriage, drawn by
two thoroughbred English horses, to Eminabad,
where the Dewan resides in the great old zenana
home built by his father in the prime of his life
and during the years of his greatest prosperity.
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Passing two or more small native villages, we at
length approach a high stone wall surrounding the
Dewan’s gardens. Driving along on the outside of
this wall, we at length enter a road passing down
between two very lofty stone walls, and presently
alight in front of a massive gateway opening through
one of these walls. This gate is always securely
locked and bolted on the inner side.
Here His Excellency the Dewan himself meets
us, dressed in a handsome costume which is neither
purely native nor purely English, but really is a
native costume modified to suit English style.
The Dewan is a large man, nearly six feet in
height and somewhat corpulent, but exceptionally
fine looking and prepossessing in appearance, and
his native European costume becomes him well.
He is a high-caste Hindu, is well educated, both in
his own and in the English language, and is very
clever. Indeed, he is recognized as the most clever
and efficient prime minister Kashmir has ever
known. His father was immensely wealthy, but
he left his property to his widow, the Dewan’s
mother, who still lives in the old home near her
son. The Dewan is a great spendthrift, getting
through several lakhs (hundred thousand) of rupees
in a single year. Now, however, that he has spent
the larger part of his own personal fortune, he is
largely dependent upon his widowed mother for
support, and she wisely and with a jealous hand
metes out to him a certain monthly allowance.
The Dewan, on this occasion of my first visit, re-
His Excellency Dewan Luchman Dass, ex-Prime Minister of Kashmir, and his Daughter
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES 139
ceives me with that courteous hospitality, cordial
warmth, and respectful politeness which is a char-
acteristic of the wealthy high-caste native gentle-
man. This formality over, we alight from the car-
riage and crawl through a small square gate in the
lower part of the great gate, which remains locked
and bolted. This tiny gate is again locked behind
us, and we find ourselves in a rather small and
much-littered courtyard. Crossing to the opposite
side, we come upon an immense veranda leading by
several doors into a great hall capable of accommo-
dating several hundred people. Here we meet Mrs.
Gerard and other members of the Gerard family.
Presently the Dewan conducts my interpreter and
myself up several flights of stairs, each of which is
extremely narrow, steep, broken, and irregular.
Passing through several halls and narrow passages,
we finally emerge into a lighter place, and find our-
selves in a very large, deep veranda, projecting
from the third or fourth story of this immense
building, and entirely surrounding the four sides
of the square courtyard which is in the center of the
building. Walking around this veranda, we are
finally conducted through several small, rather dark
rooms, each of which is nearly empty, and at length
we are ushered into a rather pleasant apartment
about twelve by twenty feet in size. Like all the
rooms we have seen in this great Hindu castle, the
walls and ceiling are entirely covered with gaudy
paintings representing hideous Hindu deities.
There are several chairs in this room, and a native
140
WITHIN THE PURDAH
cot, upon which is a pure silk down comfortable and
a cashmeri shawl of immense size and fabulous cost.
Every four or five feet around there are small
square niches in the wall, forming shelves. Upon
several of these shelves may be seen very exquisite
little English clocks, ornamented with costly gems ;
and the whole apartment is littered with a large va-
riety of rare and costly English articles — real sole-
leather trunks of the most expensive kind, real alli-
gator traveling bags, music boxes, and costly guns,
revolvers, etc.
THE WIVES AND DAUGHTER OF DEW AN
LUCHMAN DASS
In this Indo-European room we find the two na-
tive wives of the Dewan, Dalie and Molie, in their
beautiful and graceful pure silk Punjabi costumes,
and adorned with almost numberless pure Indian
gold (said to be the finest and most valuable gold
in the world) rings, bracelets, necklaces, anklets, toe
rings, and hair ornaments — all studded with costly
gems of many kinds, and almost priceless in value.
The Dewan’s first wife died some years ago.
Dalie is his second wife. She is a Mohammedan,
although the Dewan himself is a high-caste Hindu.
Of course he broke his caste in marrying a Moham-
medan woman, but being a very wealthy man, with
influence, title, and position, this fact is ignored by
his people, and he continues to occupy a position at
the head of his caste.
Mrs. Molie Luchman Dass in her Kashmeri Costume Mrs. Dalie Luchman Dass in her Punjabi Costume
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES
143
Dalie, however, does not eat at the same table
with her husband, nor touch his food, nor touch
him while he is eating, nor touch any vessel from
which he may ever take food. She sits apart by
herself during meals, but near enough to her hus-
band to be able to carry on conversation with him.
She is the favorite wife, and her marriage was a
love match.
Dalie is an attractive little woman, about five feet
two inches in height, and weighing about one hun-
dred and thirty pounds. She has a clear olive skin,
large black eyes, long shining black hair, and
beautiful hands. Her countenance is not, perhaps,
beautiful, but is very attractive, intelligent, and
kindly in its expression. She is conceded by all to
be thoroughly unselfish, kind-hearted, and patient,
and is universally beloved.
Molie is the Dewan’s third wife. She is shorter
and more slender than Dalie, with a fair com-
plexion and a prettier face, but not equally amiable.
The Dewan was married to Molie in accordance
with the advice of the King' of Kashmir and others
in authority, because she is a woman of his own
caste and of wealthy parentage, and in all respects
deemed to be a suitable wife for His Excellency the
Dewan.
Blanche Gerard is, in truth though not ostensi-
bly, the Dewan’s fourth wife. Of pure English
blood, though born in India, Blanche Gerard Luch-
man Dass is the daughter of the Dewan’s private
secretary, and was bought for a price. She is a
144
WITHIN THE PURDAH
very pretty girl in both form and feature ; graceful
in every motion, and as beautiful in spirit and amia-
ble in disposition as she is fair of face and graceful
of motion. She loves the Dewan with all the inten-
sity of her young, ardent nature, and is willing to
sacrifice her life, good name, character, and even
her soul for his sake.
Little Jannoo is the De wan’s only child. She is
a beautiful, bright girl of six years, and the De-
wan’s idol. She is supposed to be the daughter of
Dalie, whom she calls mamma, but she is, in fact,
the daughter of the family laundress, who has
served since Jannoo’s birth as her nurse and serv-
ant. Little Jannoo addresses Molie as “ Aunt,” or,
in the native tongue, “ the sister of my mother;”
while fair Blanche ostensibly holds the position of
governess to Jannoo.
Such is the family of Dewan Luchman Dass. He
has also many servants, more than one hundred in
number. His possessions are very great. In addi-
tion to the immense castle where he resides, and
which is more like a great town than a private resi-
dence, he owns in his own right some thirty vil-
lages, and all the land connected therewith and sur-
rounding them for a distance of several miles. The
rental from these villages amounts to more than
one hundred thousand rupees per annum ; and yet
this sum is not nearly enough to satisfy the numer-
ous wants of his excellency, and at frequent inter-
vals he is obliged to draw large sums from his
mother. The Dewan is considered to be a great
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES 145
spendthrift. He owns many fine English carriages
of various styles and fifty thoroughbred English
horses, some of them being exceedingly valuable
on account of their great speed.
MRS. LUCHMAN DASS, THE RICH HINDU
WIDOW
Mrs. Luchivian Dass, the Dewan’s mother, was
at this time supposed to be the richest woman in
India, if not the richest individual. She lives in
one small room, like the one above described, except
smaller, and without the signs of lavish expenditure
for English luxuries which we observed in the
former. This little room is also on the third or
fourth floor, but is in an entirely different part of
the great castle. Her dress consists of the one sin-
gle coarse garment peculiar to the high-caste Hindu
widow, only partly concealing her person.
Leading from this room, which is occupied by
Mrs. Luchman Dass alone, there are several other
small dark rooms, each of which is filled from the
floor to the ceiling with pure gold and silver coin.
The doors leading to these rooms are like great barn
doors, and are all fastened at the top with great
brass padlocks to which Mrs. Luchman Dass herself
carries the keys. Also underneath this great castle
trenches have been made in which great iron tubes
full of solid gold and silver coin are buried. This
was done by the Dewan’s father.
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WITHIN THE PURDAH
The Dewan on one occasion took me over to pay
his mother a professional visit. She was, at this
time, a woman of sixty-five or seventy years of age,
a bigoted high-caste Hindu. At the time of her
husband’s death she fain would have burned herself
on his funeral pyre, but the English law prohibited
all such acts of self-destruction. On this account,
during all the years which have elapsed since her
husband’s death, Mrs. Luchman Dass has daily in-
flicted upon herself all manner of penance and pri-
vation, in token of her fidelity to her husband. She
wears no ornaments of any kind, her hair is cut
short, she takes but one scant and insufficient meal
a day, and she inflicts upon herself many other
tortures which I am unable here to describe. She
allowed me to examine her carefully and thor-
oughly, but when I offered to administer certain
medicines from my little medicine bag she imme-
diately informed me that she could not, on any ac-
count, take any medicine from my hand, as she
feared it might contain some liquid which would
break her caste, coming thus from a Christian hand.
I offered her medicine in the form of dry powder,
but she still refused to take it. I then offered to
bring drugs in dry form from Lahore, and compound
the powder in her presence, but, although she con-
sented to have me do this, she did it in such a man-
ner as to make me doubt whether she really intended
to take the medicine thus prepared.
After examining and prescribing for my poor
rich patient I spent an hour or so in personal con-
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES 147
versation with her — she talking freely about herself
and family. Very soon she grew interested, and ap-
parently gave me her fullest confidence, and as I
was about to take my departure she slipped upon
my finger a gold ring set with coral, which she asked
me to keep in memory of her.
I have now described my first professional visit
to the home of Dewan Luchman Dass and to the
home of his widowed mother. On this occasion His
Excellency the Dewan engaged me by the year, for
an indefinite period of time, as his family physician,
and agreed to pay me the sum of six hundred and
fifty rupees per month in addition to all traveling
and other incidental expenses of myself and my in-
terpreter. Later on, however, the Dewan volun-
tarily provided me with a beautiful home in Lahore,
the second finest house in that town, all beautifully
furnished with rosewood and mahogany furniture,
Brussels carpets, rugs, china, pictures, and every-
thing needed to render a fine house comfortable,
elegant, and homelike. It also had spacious grounds
about it, with flower garden, vegetable garden,
servants’ quarters, etc., etc., so that he estimated my
salary to be really equivalent to eight hundred and
fifty rupees per month.
In the course of the months while I was family
physician to Dewan Luchman Dass I became deeply
attached to Dalie, Molie, Blanche, and little Jannoo,
and much interested in the Dewan himself. Indeed,
I had many long, earnest conversations with the
latter relating to religious matters, and he often
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WITHIN THE PURDAH
assured me that before he knew me he had lost
faith in all religions, and neither believed in the
Mohammedan, the Hindu, nor the Christian faith;
but since his conversations with me and his ac-
quaintance with my life he had come to believe in
the Christian religion and to have faith in God and
in the Lord Jesus Christ, assuring me that now he
often prayed to God, in Jesus’s name, asking for
guidance, help, and blessing, such as I enjoyed my-
self and of which I had so often spoken.
The Dewan is an exceptional native in being a
man of broad, liberal views. He has adopted many
English and European customs and habits of life.
Unlike the ordinary wealthy native, he does not
confine his women folk in strict zenana seclusion,
and would gladly allow them to throw off the
purdah altogether if they were willing to do so.
Occasionally he takes his wives for a drive in one of
his closed carriages, and it is said he sometimes takes
them, in the late evening and by way of country
roads, in an open carriage. Of course in the latter
case the ladies are concealed from public gaze by
their close purdah garments, which fall from the
head to the floor, entirely covering the person.
It was my custom to visit my patients at Emin-
abad two or three times a week, according to the
need, but I was often called by wire for extra visits
in cases of special emergency. I found them always
very kind-hearted, sympathetic, and affectionate.
They fully reciprocated my affection and looked for-
ward to my visits with great interest and pleasure.
imrmTTF
Rare Trophies Described in Accompanying Pages.
i, 2, The Nawab’s Sword and Dagger. 3, The Tiny Crimson Bag. 4, The Little
Studded with Mirrors. 5. 6, 1 he I wo Dolls Made by the Peer’s Daughter. 7, The
Gold Calendar Watch which belonged to His Highness Ahmed Singh, King of Kash-
mir. 8, An Indian Cot.
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES
151
On the seventh day of October, 1890, the Dewan
presented me with a valuable hunting-case, eight-
een-carat gold watch, said to be worth about seven
hundred and fifty rupees. The watch was origi-
nally a gift from His Highness Ahmed Singh, the
King of Kashmir, to the Dewan, and bears the
king’s monogram on the front of its outer case. It
is not only a watch, but is also a perpetual calendar,
having in addition to the hour, minute, and second
hands two little hands, one of which indicates the
day of the week and the other the date of the
month. The inscription, which is beautifully en-
graved on the outside of the inner case, reads as
follows: “From Dewan Luchman Dass to Dr.
Saleni Armstrong, Eminabad, Punjab, India,
7-io-’90.”
October 13, 1890, I met w'ith a railway accident
which crippled me for a period of two and a half
years, and obliged me to resign my position as
family physician to His Excellency Dewan Luch-
man Dass.
Since the railway accident above referred to, and
the resignation of my position as family physician
to the Dewan’s household, Mrs. Luchman Dass, the
Dewan’s mother, has died ; her remains have been
burned and her ashes cast into the waters of the
Ganges. The Dewan being the only surviving son
of his father, inherited his mother’s immense for-
tune, and it is stated that he hauled fifty lakhs of
rupees in solid gold and silver from Eminabad to
the English banks of Lahore.
9
152
WITHIN THE PURDAH
THE PEER
It was a hot, sultry day in India, and, as usual,
I was very busy in the operating room of the Gov-
ernment Hospital of Hyderabad, Sindh, to which in-
stitution I filled the position of physician-in-charge
by English government appointment. Through the
open lattice work, which intervenes between the
great, broad pillars of the veranda and the reed-
grass chicks which curtain the open doors, I heard
an unusual commotion, and, looking out, saw the
servants, nurses, everybody about the place, rushing
from the back to the front of the house, where an
old, white-haired, long-bearded, distinguished-look-
ing native gentleman was alighting, with the supple-
ness and agility of a youth, from a fine Arabian
horse, blue-black and glossy as a raven’s shining
breast. He was surrounded by a bodyguard of
many Mohammedan men, all of whom were bow-
ing before him as if in worship. My Mohammedan
servants also, as soon as he had alighted from his
horse, bowed down before him until their foreheads
touched the earth.
Presently my interpreter, rushing into the hos-
pital, exclaimed in a most excited manner, “The
peer is here and wants to see the doctor Sahib !
“ Give him a seat in my office,” said I, “ and let him
wait; I will be there presently.” “ O, doctor Sahib,
how can I ask him to wait ? It is the peer, and he
seems in great haste! ” “ And who is this peer,”
said I, “ who cannot be asked to wait? ” O, he is
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES 153
a very great man and a very great saint ; all Mo-
hammedans worship him and all Hindus seek his
life, and the English government is pledged to pro-
tect him ; and he wears a sword and knives which
were presented to him by an English government
official ; and he has authority to slay anyone who
dares to attack him.” All this was rattled off in a
breath and in the most excited manner. “Well,”
said I, “ you need not ask him to wait; I will go at
once.”
As I entered my office I saw the peer standing in
the middle of the room in an attitude and with an
air which reminded me of a wild bird of prey which
had alighted upon the earth for a moment, with
half-poised pinions, ready to take flight at the
slightest alarm.
With the grace and courtesy of a knight of the
olden times he bowed himself when I entered,
kissed my hand, and told me that he was “a beg-
gar; ” that his daughter, the joy and delight of his
life, was very seriously, dangerously ill, and he had
come to beg me to go without delay to save her life.
He had no money to pay me, but he would give his
life, he would do anything for me, if I would only
save his daughter. When I consented to go the peer
spoke a word to one of the Mohammedan men, who
waited, bowing, at the door, and presently a dozen
Mohammedan men rushed off to engage a carriage
for my conveyance, and in an incredibly short time
many carriages drove up in front of the hospital
gate. It was not because I had ordered them, but
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WITHIN THE PURDAH
because the peer had need of a carriage, that so
many came and waited and begged for the privilege
of doing the service. Not for filthy lucre, not one
of them would accept a pie (a small Indian coin
worth about one sixth of a cent) from the peer for
any service which they might be able to reuder.
They consider him to be the greatest saint on
earth ; and esteem themselves most highly priv-
ileged if they are permitted to do him a service, and
thus, perhaps, receive his blessing. The peer waited
until he saw my interpreter and myself safely seated
in one of the best of the carriages in waiting, and then
he mounted his steed and fairly flew over the coun-
try, out from the city, over the country roads, and
through the jungles to his home. It was well-nigh
impossible for us to keep him in sight, although our
coachman kneeled down in the front of his carriage
and applied the whip to his already excited and
running horses. Such a chase ! Two or three times
the peer was quite out of sight, and we feared lest
we should not be able to find his home. Presently,
however, we saw him standing, impatiently waiting
for us to come in sight, then off again.
At last, in a most out-of-the-way place, such as
one might seek for concealment, in the center of a
jungle, surrounded by scraggy trees, we found him.
He had alighted, and waited to assist me from the
carriage. A great stone wall, so lofty that no mor-
tal could scale it, surrounded his home. Opening
through this wall there was only one gate, an im-
mense, heavy, double-doored gate, which, however,
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES 155
was always kept securely padlocked. In the lower
part of one of the two doors which constituted this
gate a little traplike gate opened, through which
we crawled, after which this also was padlocked
behind us.
Within the inclosure are three very fine Arabian
horses; one of them black, a perfect match to the
midnight steed which bore the peer so swiftly from
our hospital, and two iron grays. There are also a
goat, a tiny musk deer, several caged birds, and a
parrot. At the further end of the inclosure is a
deep veranda, covered with matting and very much
littered. This veranda admits us to the one tiny
room which constitutes the peer’s home and that of
his two wives and his one daughter.
Before entering the peer gives me a seat on the
veranda, sits down beside me on the floor in native
style, and describes the condition of his daughter.
She is in a perilous condition of health. Eats noth-
ing, absolutely nothing, and frequently vomits large
quantities of fresh blood ; he does not know how she
lives at all. But he feels sure that my English medi-
cine will be the means of restoring her health, in
which case he will worship me. Her mother, who
was the peer’s first wife, died several years ago.
This daughter is his only child and his sole earthly
solace. She is the idol of his heart ; he could not
live without her. All this he tells me in the most
impressive manner, and begs me to spare no pains,
no trouble, no expense, but by all means to do some-
thing for the restoration of his daughter’s health.
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WITHIN THE PURDAH
He is poor, so he says, a beggar upon the earth.
The fine Arabian horses were given to him as a
token of love by his followers. The costly gems and
exquisite ornaments which adorn the person of his
beloved daughter were all gifts from Mohammedan
worshipers. He has no money ; he lives upon the
charity of his people ; they send him food and pro-
vide for each and all of his needs as they occur.
Ask for it? No, never ! He is a beggar in fact, but
not by practice. He would starve rather than ask
alms; it is not necessary for him to ask; his follow-
ers count it their chief joy and privilege to present
him with all material good. All this, by way of
explanation, comes from the peer’s own lips.
My interpreter then explains that the peer is a
great prophet, and preaches his Mohammedan re-
ligion in the streets and everywhere wherever he
can get an audience, and that many people have
been converted from the Hindu religion to the Mo-
hammedan through his instrumentality. On this
account the Hindus hate him and seek his life, and
have offered a great reward to anyone who will slay
him ; but the Mohammedans worship him and the
English government protects his person.
The peer also explains to me that his daughter,
though sixteen or seventeen years of age, is still
unmarried. Not because there is no one willing to
marry her; on the contrary, any wealthy, high-caste
native Mohammedan man in India would count him-
self highly honored if permitted to marry the peer’s
daughter. This is a very exceptional case ; no other
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES 157
like it in all India. The peer has no equal in India,
and there is no man in all that country worthy to
marry the peer’s daughter. He has kept her un-
married all these years, hoping that some great
king or prince would come from a distance, asking
for the hand of his daughter in marriage. No such
one having arrived, she is still unmarried. “ Is he,
the peer, then, disgraced?” I inquire. “O no!
Nothing could disgrace the peer! ” “Is his daugh-
ter, then, disgraced because she has passed the age
of twelve and is still unmarried? ” “ O no ! Noth-
ing could disgrace her, because she is the peer’s
daughter!” The gods could not curse her; she
is not a Hindu, to be cursed by their gods, but a
Mohammedan ; and it is not her fault that she is
still unmarried, nor her father’s fault; but only be-
cause there is no man in all India worthy of such a
bride. She is, therefore, allowed to wear her silken
apparel, her gold and silver ornaments, with their
costly settings, and her beautiful hair remains uncut,
though she be unmarried and past the age of twelve.
THE PEER'S DAUGHTER
We are now ushered into the one little dark room
which constitutes the home of these strange people,
and the peer introduces his daughter. We find her
reclining gracefully upon a low cot, covered with
down quilts, soft silk spreads, and exquisite and
costly Kashmeri shawls. She is attired in the most
delicately tinted pure silk garments, and is literally
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WITHIN THE PURDAH
covered with gold and silver ornaments studded
with costly gems. A more exquisitely beautiful
maiden never lived in any clime or delighted any
home. Perfect in form — neither tall nor short,
neither thin in flesh nor stout, but just round and
sweet and lovely. Graceful in every motion, pre-
possessing in appearance, and having in an un-
usually large degree that strange, rare, native dig-
nity peculiar to high-caste Indian women. At
first she seems languid. Her great, soft brown
eyes are cast down and her transparent eyelids
droop, while her long curling lashes almost entirely
conceal from view that subtle light which flashes
and gleams in their dark liquid depths beneath
her father’s searching gaze ; for his eyes are like
an eagle’s in their keen, piercing stare.
I take my patient’s tiny hand, so soft and delicate •
and exquisite in its contour, and find the pulse reg-
ular, strong, and perfectly normal in every way.
The father looks away for a moment to speak to my
interpreter. His daughter glances first at him and
then darts at me a keen, intelligent, bright look,
quite unlike the languid glance described above.
With a few tender words the peer commends his
daughter to my care and withdraws. As soon as
he is quite away, and his daughter has heard the
key turn in the padlock of the little gate, she imme-
diately sits up and begins an animated conversation
in the most intelligent, bright, and winning man-
ner. No more is said about her illness. Of course
I insist upon making a thorough examination, but
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES
159
find heart, lungs, and every organ of her body in a
perfectly normal, sound condition. The thermom-
eter marks no rise of temperature, and there is no
sign of disease upon her.
She puts innumerable questions; is interested in
everything I say ; wants to know all about the
world outside, about America, about my home and
friends there, and how we live, and what it is like to
be free and to go and come at will, and innumerable
things. Finally she begs me to take her home with
me, begs me to take her to the hospital, begs me
to take her anywhere. She wants to see the world
and people and things. The monotony of her life
is killing her. She is a prisoner. Her father loves
her, is devoted to her, idolizes her, but keeps her in
a living tomb. He will not relent ; he will not grant
her any liberty ; he will not even allow her to peep
over the high wall that surrounds her home. If
she could only climb to the roof of her house, as
poor, low-caste women are allowed to do, and have
a look, be it ever so little, round about outside of
her father’s compound (lawn or yard), that would
be something. Her father, however, is hard ; he
will not allow her the least little peep of the out-
side world ; she never sees anybody nor anything ;
never is allowed any privileges nor liberty of any
kind. She is “dying” to get away from this
wretched place. She speaks pretty broken English,
and can read and write. Her mother was an edu-
cated woman and taught her at home. Her grand-
mother taught her mother in the beginning. How
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this small bit of education first crept into this native
home is unknown, but certain it is that it has been
appreciated, and has been extended from mother to
daughter, so that this peer’s daughter is able to read
and has some idea of the outside world, although
she has never seen it. Nor has she many books to
read. Only occasionally some newspaper, or a scrap
of some newspaper, comes within her grasp. She
assures me that she has read just enough about the
world to make her crazy to see it. How animated
she seems! How brilliant! How her eyes flash
and how the bright color deepens in her exquisitely
rounded olive cheek as she speaks! A fair and
lovely picture to behold, here in her dark, dingy
prison-house. As she again and again begs me to
take her away I feel obliged to suggest the diffi-
culties, which she knows so well and feels so keenly.
Then she falls back upon her low cot disappointed,
sad, disconsolate. Presently, however, she springs
up like some wild thing and begins to tell me in
the most impressive manner how very ill she is ;
how she has frequent attacks during which she
vomits clear blood ; that she cannot eat ; that she goes
whole days and days and days without a morsel of
food; that she has no appetite at all. For this
cause I must take her to the hospital. The change
of diet, the change of surroundings, the nursing,
and all will serve to restore her health. I promise
to use my best influence with the peer to induce
him to send her to the hospital. This I do, but he
refuses; will not entertain the proposition for a
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES
161
moment. Again and again, during the weeks that
follow, he comes on his black steed tearing over to
the hospital, and takes me back at the same break-
neck speed to visit his daughter, who has recently
had another attack of this terrible hemorrhage from
the stomach and has taken no food or nourishment
of any kind for a period of several days — a week,
perhaps. Finally, after many such trips, I succeed
in persuading the peer to bring his daughter to the
hospital. The time is appointed for the journey —
midnight, on the darkest night in the month.
First of all, of course, she is enveloped in her long
white purdah garment, which extends from the
crown of her head to the floor and trails about her
feet. Then she is placed in a closed purdah carriage —
a box arrangement, in which there is no window —
and the one door through which she enters is tightly
fastened. This box-shaped purdah carriage is then
raised by means of two long poles and carried on
the shoulders of four servant men. These men are
all high-caste Mohammedans, and the peer himself
walks along at the side of the carriage, keeping his
hand upon the door. Thus, in the middle of the
night, the peer’s daughter is conveyed from her
zenana home to our zenana hospital. In the hos-
pital she makes rapid improvement, eats well, and
vomits no blood ; is happy as a lark, the very light
of the hospital and the delight of all its inmates ; a
little wayward, however, regarding confinement.
She begs the nurses to allow her to peep out the
doors, walk on the veranda, and enjoy many other
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little privileges of freedom. They, fearing the
peer, forbid all such innocent diversions. Then she
becomes imperious, and asks them how they dare
to refuse the peer’s daughter! How they dare to
command her! Nevertheless, she submits.
Every time I visit my little patient in her ward
she entreats me to take her home with me. She says
she will cover herself completely from view with
her purdah garment, and then ride in my carriage
by my side from the hospital to my home. I dare
not grant her petition. Finally, one of the Moham-
medan nurses, who worships the peer, thinking I
will surely yield and that I intend to take her over
to my house, sends a message to the peer to this
effect. The peer is furious, and, white with rage ;
he tears over to the hospital, clinching the hilt of
his sword. Thus he rushes up to the hospital and,
meeting the matron at the veranda entrance, de-
mands to know where his daughter may be found.
She quietly assures him that his daughter is in her
ward, and that he can see her in a moment if he will
wait in the office. This unarms his rage in part,
but not wholly. He will stand and wait until his
daughter appear. When, however, he sees that
she is really there and coming he relents and tells
the matron, Mrs. Collins, and my native Christian
interpreter, Pareni, who has come in, that he came
with the full purpose of murdering them all, and
declares that he intended to kill the doctor Sahib
as well, in case he did not find his daughter at the
hospital. Finding her there safe and well, and
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES 163
being assured that she shall not on any pretense be
allowed to escape, he returns to his home satisfied.
Some days later the peer expresses a desire to take
his daughter home, believing her to be fully re-
stored to health. I acquiesce in this latter opinion,
and agree that she may leave the hospital in the
course of a day or two. The news of this conver-
sation soon reaches my little patient, and that
evening she has a violent fit of vomiting and a
terrible hemorrhage. Of course the matron sends
for me instantly. When I arrive I find my little
patient lying quietly in her bed apparently ex-
hausted, but not more pallid than usual. I take
her pulse and find it perfectly normal. The ward
floor near the bed of the peer’s daughter is badly
stained with blood (?), the nurse having allowed
the stains to remain until I should see it. I request
them to leave it until the following morning, when
I shall be able to examine it by daylight. In the
morning I discover that the vomited matter is not
blood, although I cannot tell what it is — something
which has the color of blood, and which appears
like it in every way, except that it does not coagu-
late. I intimate to the nurse in attendance my
suspicions, and order her to give my patient a bath
without giving her any intimation of her purpose,
and to make a thorough search for any red powder
or liquid which may be concealed about her person.
Soon after this the nurse who has charge of the
peer’s daughter comes to my home to report. Her
patient made all sorts of excuses in order to avoid
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the bath, and made many other excuses to gain
time in order, as it proved, to get rid of something
about her person. In spite of all, however, the
nurse discovers a tiny bag fastened about her pa-
tient’s waist underneath her clothing which contains
a red powder, and being hard pressed, the peer’s
daughter confesses this red powder to be the sub-
stance which she swallowed in order to make it
seem that she had vomited blood. Of course she
confides this to the nurse in great confidence, ex-
acting a promise of secrecy. She further explains
that her women servants bring her the powder
whenever she wants it, and that they also give her
food in her father’s absence, thus enabling her to
fast in his presence.
Prior to this discovery the peer had been notified
of his daughter’s illness, and he therefore decided
to allow her to remain in the hospital until such
time as she might be again fully restored.
Many such stratagems as these are resorted to by
the peer’s daughter in order to obtain a greater de-
gree of freedom, diversion, or change.
After many words, much entreaty, argument, ad-
vice, and every means that could be resorted to, the
peer is finally persuaded to bring his daughter to
my home to pay me a brief visit. Of course this
must be done after nightfall, on a dark night, and
in the same closed purdah carriage which conveyed
her from her zenana home to our zenana hospital. I
sit up until a late hour in order to receive my little
guest. It proves to be a very great treat to her.
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES
165
She is delighted with everything she sees in my
home. Of course all my male servants have been
previously sent away from the premises, and there
is no man about the place except my husband, who
is cloistered in a room apart, and who receives the
peer himself and entertains him during the visit.
At a late hour the peer enters the room where we
sit and announces that he is ready to return to his
home and that his daughter must prepare to go.
Almost instantly my little patient takes a severe
pain, and invites her father to withdraw in order
that she may make known to her physician the char-
acter of her sufferings. As soon as the peer has left
the room his daughter arises, shrugs her shoulders,
smiles significantly, and continues her visit. Still
later in the evening she entreats me to keep her ;
to make some excuse to her father so that he will
allow her to remain with me. O, if she could only
live here always ! Such is her cry.
Poor child! Just a healthy, strong, vigorous
maiden, full of life, and health, and vigor, and
energy, and interest, to whom all things in life seem
beautiful, enticing, fascinating; and such a one
condemned to lifelong solitude and seclusion !
After her return to her little dark zenana home our
patient has frequent attacks of vomiting and hemor-
rhage like those above described, and on each occa-
sion I am summoned to her side in great haste by
her father.
The peer often visits us in our home ; professes
to be very fond of Mr. Hopkins and deeply grateful
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to me for what I have done for his daughter. Some-
times he spends several hours at our home. On
such occasions, when his hour for prayer arrives (the
Mohammedans worship seven times a day), he goes
to the front of the house, spreads his garment upon
the ground, stands upon it, and goes through all the
ceremonies of Mohammedan worship. He usually
spends one hour at his prayers. This over, he goes
back into the house and engages in conversation
again with anyone of us who happens to be at
leisure. He usually brings some gift for me, from
himself or from his daughter. Thus, at one time,
he brought me the beautiful little musk deer, which
was his family pet. At another time he brought me
two lovely ringdoves.
When we were about to return to America the fact
somehow came to the knowledge of the peer’s
daughter and she sent me an urgent request to visit
her once more before leaving India. I can never
forget that last visit. How sad she was at the
thought of never seeing me again ! She presented
to me many little tokens of love. Among them
were two dolls, representing a wealthy high-caste
Mohammedan lady and gentleman of Hyderabad,
which she had made expressly for me, with her own
deft fingers ; also a bag, studded with tiny round
mirrors and embroidered in silk floss of many colors.
The peer’s daughter is, in two notable particu-
lars, a very great exception to the ordinary high-
caste zenana woman of India. First, having passed
the age of twelve years unmarried, she is, neverthe-
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES 167
less not considered to be disgraced herself nor a dis-
grace to her family and caste, and, secondly, she
has been taught to read and is able to do some sorts
of needlework with her own hands, and is allowed
to divert herself in this manner.
Strange as it may seem, the peer’s daughter has
a lover, and one, too, whom her father does not
approve.
A short time before my first visit it happened that
a young native prince from some distant city came
to see the peer in regard to some matter pertaining
to their Mohammedan religion or worship. While
he, the young prince, was being entertained by the
peer outside of the high wall which serves to keep
his wives and daughter in seclusion, one of the
servant women returning from Hyderabad city,
where she had been sent on an errand by one of the
peer’s wives, saw this young prince and was much
impressed by his handsome face, courteous manner,
and grace and dignity of bearing. When she was
again admitted through the small gate into the
presence of her mistress she was, as usual, interro-
gated by the peer’s daughter as to all she had seen
and heard during her absence. Of course she men-
tioned the fact of having seen this wonderful young
prince who was visiting the peer, and enlarged upon
his many charms, the fascination of his brilliant
eyes, the beauty of his raven locks, and the dignity
of his manly bearing.
The peer’s daughter had never looked upon the
face of any man save that of her father only, as she
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has no brothers and no near kinsmen. Upon hear-
ing this description from the lips of her servant
woman she became frantic to meet this handsome
young prince, and began at once to devise means
whereby she might achieve this end. At length it
was arranged that there should be another errand
which would make it necessary for one of the serv-
ant women to go again to the city; and that, as the
peer unlocked the little gate to allow her to pass
out, one of his wives should call him urgently — the
daughter feigning sudden illness; meanwhile the
servant woman, rushing through the little gate,
should speak to the young prince, and give him a
hint of the true situation, asking him to return the
following day at a certain hour when it was known
the peer would be away from home attending to his
religious duties.
This arrangement was successfully carried out, and
at the appointed hour the young prince appeared
again on the spot and waited and watched for fur-
ther developments. By some device of these fair
plotters, for the peer’s wives and servant women
were in league with his daughter, a sort of ladder
was improvised, by means of which she, the peer’s
daughter, climbed to the roof of her father’s house
and from there looked over the wall which sur-
rounded her father’s premises, down upon the young
prince who waited to see her face. They were not
near enough to hold any conversation, but it seems
it was a case of “ love at first sight,” and mutual.
The young prince was completely charmed and cap-
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES
169
tivated by the bewildering beauty of the peer’s
daughter, and the peer’s daughter, on her part, fell
madly in love with the prince.
Of course the peer must never know that his
daughter’s face had been seen by a man, and with-
out divulging this fact- the prince applied for the
hand of the peer’s daughter in marriage, but with-
out success. The peer did not consider that this
young man was of sufficiently high caste, sufficiently
wealthy, or that he held a sufficiently exalted posi-
tion in the world to be worthy of his daughter ; and
his decision was of course final. The young couple,
however, continue to send messages, through the
servants, each to the other, always hoping for a time
to come when, somehow, all barriers to their union
may be dissolved.
The little gate is never allowed to remain un-
locked, not even for the space of a single moment,
and no servant woman can leave the premises except
she be passed out by the hand of the peer himself.
This she may do occasionally, when there is some
errand which can only be done by a servant woman
or which is beneath the dignity of the peer. If she
return during the peer’s absence from home, she can-
not be admitted until his return ; she must wait with-
out until the peer come and bring the only key
which will unfasten the padlock of that little gate.
The young prince lingers about the place and
watches, from some distant hiding place, for the
peer to leave home, then draws nearer, hoping
that some means maybe arranged whereby he shall
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have the opportunity of gazing once more upon the
face of the fair young maiden who has won his
heart. She, on her part, watches and waits for his
approach, longs for her father’s disappearance, and
seizes every possible opportunity to behold the hand-
some face of her lover.
Should there ever be a sequel to this strange ro-
mance, which is not a fiction, but a fact, I may, per-
haps, on some future day be able to “continue”
this story to its happy (?) termination.
Is there no release? Is there no release? O
God, is there no release? When shall these prison
walls be broken down ? When shall these innocent
captives be set at liberty? When shall these chains
of adamant be severed ! When shall these fair
limbs be unbound? When shall these beautiful
and innocent slaves be emancipated? When shall
these sepulchers be unlocked and broken through ?
When shall these living wives and daughters be
released from these tombs of living women? Who
will answer?
‘ ‘ The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me ; be-
cause the Lord hath anointed me to preach good
tidings unto the meek ; he hath sent me to bind up
the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the cap-
tives, and the opening of the prison to them that
are bound ;
“To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
and the day of vengeance of our God ; to comfort
all that mourn ;
“ To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to
IN THE ZENANA HOMES OF INDIAN PRINCES 171
give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for
mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of
heaviness; that they might be called Trees of
righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that he
might be glorified ” (Isa. 61. 1-3).
A PROPHECY AND A PRAYER
The rich the poorest are, I ween,
And most to be deplored
Their hapless lot, behind the screen
Where naught may joy afford.
The chains that bind are adamant ;
The walls are great and high ;
The purdah veil remains unrent —
Fair captives weep and sigh.
Our God shall break the captive’s chain
And set the prisoner free;
He’ll rend the purdah veil in twain.
That blinded eyes may see.
Amen ! So let it be !
BOOK III
HEROES AND HEROINES OF
ZION
“ Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost :
“ Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you : and, lo, I am with you
away, even unto the end of the world ." — Matthew
xxviii, 19, 20.
TO THE PEERLESS TRIO
MISSES HEWLETT, BARTLETT, AND CROSS
OF
THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY
OF
UMRITSAR, PUNJAB, INDIA
WHO EXTENDED MANY KINDLY, HOSPITABLE
AND GRACIOUS COURTESIES UNTO
“ONE OF THE LEAST” OF HIS
EVEN AS UNTO HIM
THIS LITTLE WORK
“HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION”
IS
VERY GRATEFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY
DEDICATED
BY
THE AUTHOR
South India Conference
BOOK III
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
WHO ARE THEY?
Heroes they who, self forgetting.
Gladly yield their lives to God ;
Seeking not for vain preferment,
Meekly bowing ’neath the rod.
Heroes they, and heroes worthy,
Who, neglectful of earth’s gain,
Carry to the heathen nations
Tidings of the Lamb once slain:
Slain for all mankind in common,
Slain the nations to reclaim
From the dire results of sinning ;
Giving glory to his name ;
Heroines and heroes noble ;
Worthy of our love sincere.
For unto the heart of Jesus
They are cherished friends most dear.
THE METHODIST MISSIONARY OF THE
PARENT BOARD
There are many phases of missionary work in
India. Seventy-three distinct Christian denomina-
tions and societies are represented, and each one
has many different branches and departments of
missionary effort. In onr own Methodist Episcopal
179
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WITHIN THE PURDAH
Church, we have first of all the regular male mis-
sionary, sent out by the parent board and sup-
ported by our Missionary Society. Upon his arrival
in India the first necessity which arises is that of
mastering some one of the many languages spoken
by the people of Hindiistan. It will require one
year at least for him to become sufficiently ad-
vanced in this study to be able to take charge of a
native church. Usually, therefore, he is first ap-
pointed pastor of some English-speaking church.
He may remain in this church for one, two, three,
or more years ; but whether it be a long or a short
term of service, he is supposed to put in every spare
moment in the study of the particular language
which he has selected, and when he becomes suffi-
ciently proficient to be able to hold conversation
and to preach fairly well in the vernacular he is
appointed pastor of some native church. Now his
labors begin in earnest. Not only must he perform
all the regular pastoral duties which devolve upon
every pastor in the Methodist Church at home, such
as regular Sabbath services, pastoral visitations,
marriages, baptisms, funerals, etc., etc., but he
must do much more than this. He preaches two
or three times every Sunday, and usually once or
twice every day in the week. At four, five, or six
o’clock in the morning the butler ( Jianial ) raps at
the door of the missionary’s bed chamber and cries
out, “ Chota haziri , Sahib!” (Little breakfast, sir!)
At this summons the missionary goes to the door
and receives a little tray containing two cups of tea
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
1 8 1
or coffee, one for himself and one for his wife, and
two or three thin slices of toasted bread already
spread with buffalo butter — white as lard. There
may also be two small bananas or two eggs, but
these do not usually form a part of the little break-
fast. Immediately after this “ frugal meal,” early,
early in the morning, before the heat becomes too
great for him to be out of doors with impunity, he
is found on some public corner or square in the na-
tive bazar preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
This he may do even before he has become fluent
in the use of the native tongue, through an inter-
preter. He takes with him one of his native local
preachers or exhorters and they walk to the bazar
together. As they approach the market place, or
immediately after they arrive and have taken their
stand, they begin singing some Christian hymn in
the native tongue, and perhaps playing an accompa-
niment with cymbals, tambourine, or some other
musical instrument of native device. This attracts
attention and soon avails to draw a crowd. When
a sufficient number have gathered the singing and
playing ceases and our missionary begins his ser-
mon. It is not a short discourse of twenty, thirty,
or forty minutes’ duration, but may last for several
hours. The congregation is constantly changing;
a few going away and others coming almost con-
tinually, so that at the close of the discourse, two
or three hours after its commencement, the preacher
will have an entirely different audience from the
one with which he began. The service may be
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varied from time to time, at the discretion of the
missionary, with song, prayer, scripture reading,
short addresses, or testimonies by native assistants.
Sometimes, especially in large cities, two or three
missionaries may go together to the morning street
preaching, taking with them several native helpers,
and in this case there will be several discourses, inter-
spersed with prayer and singing. When the sun’s
rays become intolerably hot the service is closed and
all return home, where they arrive usually at nine or
ten o’clock. Bara liaziri khana (big breakfast) is now
in waiting — -oatmeal, curry and rice, poached eggs
on toast, potato chips, bananas, and possibly beef-
steak. Breakfast over, the missionary conducts
family prayers. This he does sometimes in the
native language only, at other times using both the
English and native tongues, reading a part of the
Scripture lesson in our own language and a part in
the vernacular, or reading the same lesson in both
languages ; praying first in one language and then
in another, or praying in the English tongue and
having his prayer interpreted sentence by sentence
into the native language. This is done for the
sake of the native servants, who have gathered
in the large dining room and sit around on the
floor with their legs crossed and their heads bowed
in the most respectful manner. During prayer
they will all lean over until their foreheads touch
the floor and remain in this bowed position until
the end of the Lord’s Prayer, which all Christians
in the room repeat in concert. After family wor-
Dana’s Wife, the Ayah Dena, the Butler
Miss Robinson Miss W. L. Armstrong Miss Levermore
Three Zenana Missionaries with Servants and Two of Miss Levermore's
Little Adopted Native Children, and Chung, Dena’s Son
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
185
ship the missionary retires to his study, not for rest,
but for letter or report writing, private devotions,
or study. At one o’clock the butler rings the bell,
announcing that tiffin (luncheon) is ready. This is
a light meal, often cold — some cold sliced meat, a
cup of hot tea, stale bread with buffalo butter, ba-
nanas, oranges, custard, apples, guavas, mangoes,
or whatever fruit may be in season. He may also
have hot curry and rice, but this is not customary.
After luncheon the missionary must see his local
preachers, exhorters, and other native assistants,
and instruct them as to the best methods of teach-
ing the Scripture lesson, etc., etc. At four or
half-past four, the native assistants depart, leav-
ing our missionary alone in his study. Pres-
ently the butler, with bare feet, pure white turban
of immense size, spotless kurta and pacjama, and
scarlet sash, comes to the missionary’s study bear-
ing a small tray with a cup of India tea and a few
English biscuits. The missionary partakes of these
refreshments with relish. At this hour of the day,
when the oppressive heat has served to enervate
and depress the weary missionary, his afternoon
tea seems a necessity. In some missionary homes,
however, the afternoon tea is dispensed with and
dinner is served at that hour, in which case tea
and biscuits are usually served late in the evening.
At half-past four or five o’clock in the afternoon, as
the heat begins to abate, the missionary leaves his
home again. This time he goes to the native city
to visit his boys’ schools. Of these he may have a
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large number under his own care. A small upper
room in the native city serves as a schoolroom,
and a native Christian man, who has been educated
in one of our missionary boys' boarding schools, is
engaged as teacher. Native boys whose parents
are heathen are gathered from all parts of the city
to these day schools. Here the rudiments of an
education are acquired and the pupils are prepared
to enter English government schools of higher
grade, but the Bible is the chief text-book and is
taught regularly and carefully every day. There
may be only one, but if there be ten, fifteen, or
more such schools as this in the native city where
our missionary is pastor of the native church, he must
superintend them all. He visits each of them fre-
quently, conducts all the examinations, directs and
examines the native teachers, and has oversight
and management of the whole. So that our mis-
sionary to India must be not only an able preacher
of the Gospel and a consecrated Christian man, but
he must also be strong and vigorous in body in
order to endure the enervating effects of that most
trying tropical climate and the strain of his inces-
sant and arduous toil. He must also be a scholar,
able to teach and to superintend many schools — to
manage men, to marshal his converts; a very
general.
Nor are these all the labors that devolve upon
our missionary in India. He may have, in addition
to the native day schools in the native city, one or
more boys’ boarding schools which he must super-
Rev. S. P. Jacobs with the Boys of One of His Native Schools
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
189
intend. If his church be strong spiritually, finan-
cially, numerically, and in every respect, he will
have efficient helpers — class leaders, Sabbath school
superintendent, Epworth League president, stew-
ards, trustees, Ladies’ Aid, and all the auxiliary
helpers which a pastor in a Christian land is sup-
posed to have. This, however, is exceptional. As
a rule our missionary who holds the position of
pastor of a native church in India has little, if any,
efficient help in his church. He or his wife must
superintend the Sabbath school, act as president of
the Epworth League, lead the classes, and fill every
position of responsibility in the church.
After our missionary returns from the native city,
where he has been to inspect or examine his boys’
day schools, he is usually ready for his khana (din-
ner), which is served at six, seven, or eight o’clock
in the evening, according to the prevailing custom
of the English people of the community in which he
lives.
No food is found upon the dining table when the
missionary and his family first take their accus-
tomed places, except, perhaps, the soup, which
forms the inevitable first course. After this, fol-
lowing in due course, come the fish, the roast and
vegetables, the curry and rice, and, finally, the pud-
ding or the fruit.
Immediately after dinner the missionary conducts
family worship, the servants attending as in the
morning.
During the evening our missionary may have a
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sermon to preach, an Epworth League service to
conduct, a prayer or class meeting to lead, a Bible
reading to give, a Missionary Conference to attend,
some ill people to visit, or a report to write. In
any case his time is sure to be fully occupied. And
thus his busy days go by.
Besides the regular pastorates of the English-
speaking and native churches there are other posi-
tions of trust and responsibility which must be filled
by the regular male missionary of the parent board
of the Methodist Episcopal Church. There must be
presiding elders for the various districts, our Church
papers must have editors and agents, our Christian
schools and colleges must have presidents and
teachers, our various printing and publishing agen-
cies must be superintended by competent men, and
at any Annual Conference session the regular pastor
may be removed from his pastorate to fill any of the
above posts left vacant by death or removal. Lat-
tei'ly, however, some of these important places, such
as presiding elderships and professorships in our
Christian schools and colleges, have been and are
being ably and efficiently filled by native men. In-
deed, some of our best Christian schools in India
have but one or two American missionaries in their
whole staff of teachers, and there are now many
presiding elders in our native Christian Church who
have proven themselves able, efficient, and satis-
factory in every respect.
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
191
THE SERVANT QUESTION
Since my return to America strange reports have
come to my hearing. A Methodist missionary is
supposed by many to be a man of leisure who goes
to India on a fat salary and lives at his ease, sur-
rounded by servants to wait upon him. No greater
mistake than this could be made. The Methodist
missionary in India is an overwrought, overbur-
dened, careworn man. That he bears his burdens
and responsibilities gladly and cheerfully, as unto
the Lord, does not alter the fact nor relieve the
pressure which is surely telling upon the constitu-
tion and shortening the life. That he has servants
to wait upon him is true. May I digress a moment
while I explain this servant question?
Servants in India are a necessity. Not because
the missionary is unwilling to work, not on account
of laziness or idleness on the part of the mission-
ary or his wife, but for reasons which grow out of
and are dependent upon the caste system of India
and other conditions which are peculiar to that
country. To illustrate: You must have water to
drink and for cooking purposes. Your cook will
not bring it — he will not leave his kitchen for any
purpose ; the butler will not bring it — that is not
his work ; not one of the house servants will do it —
they each have their own peculiar labor and will do
but one thing; it is their occupation, their religion,
their social standing among the people of their
country, and — well — it is their caste ! The biliishti
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(water carrier) will bring water in a dressed goat-
skin on his back from some distant well, filling all
the water chatties in your house once, twice, or
three times per day, as maybe needful. But suppose
you refuse to be thus served. You declare that you
cannot submit to having so many servants about
you, and you undertake to bring your own water.
Take a bucket, in the early morning, and start for
a distant well. You must start early, as in this
climate you cannot be out during the middle of the
day with impunity. When you arrive at the well (an
old-fashioned dug well, with a broad brick wall all
around which stands up four feet above the surface
of the ground), before you have time to climb to
the top of the brick wall, upon which you must
stand in order to drop your bucket down into the
well, several native bihishtis intervene and, with
low salaams and respectful entreaty, beg you to
desist. In spite of this you clamber to the top of
the brick wall and lower your bucket into the well.
The natives look upon all white-faced Sahibs (gen-
tlemen) as their superiors, if not their lords, and for
this reason they do not resist you further, but stand
back in dismay while you pollute their well. After
your departure, however, these same bihishtis
gather about and fill up the well with soil and
stones. This is done lest by any accident some
high-caste native, not knowing that the well has
been polluted by the hand of a Christian, should
drink water from this same well and thus break his
caste. It may be that there is no other well for
Domingo, the Cook, in the Kitchen of an American Missionary
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
195
some miles around, and this may create quite a panic
for water, nevertheless the thing must be done — the
well is ruined for native use, and forever. The
next day you try again, and, finding this well filled
up, you go to another. The same result will follow,
until you are compelled to engage a bihishti to bring
your water for you, which you can do for the nom-
inal sum of from two to four rupees (sixty cents to one
dollar and thirty cents) a month, and without board.
Do you suggest that the missionary’s wife herself
prepare the family meals, and thus save the expense
of hiring a cook? There is no kitchen in the mission-
ary home, no cook stove, and perhaps not even a
fireplace, chimney, or stovepipe hole. The kitchen
is some distance from the house, in the back yard.
It is a small, dark room, with one door and one small
square hole, with wooden bars crossing it, which
serves as a window. The cooking is done on sev-
eral little handmade mud stoves. These are made
in the shape of a horseshoe, one foot or less across
the top and six inches in depth. In the middle of
the horseshoe the wood or charcoal fire is made,
and on its rim, above the fire, is placed the degcha
(a copper cooking utensil about the shape of an or-
dinary tin basin, only deeper, and of graduated
sizes), which contains whatever food is to be cooked.
Of course there is no pipe to this stove, and the
smoke goes in the face of the cook and fills the
room. During the hot season no English or Amer-
ican woman could cook in such a place as this with-
out imperiling her life.
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WITHIN THE PURDAH
In some parts of India the above-described hand-
made cook stove has been supplanted by an elevated
fireplace or grate, built up with mortar and brick to
about the height of an American cook stove and
having several round openings in the upper surface
which reach down to the open fireplace beneath.
These are a decided improvement on the first-
described stove, but having no chimney, stovepipe,
or other means of escape for the smoke, they are
still very unsatisfactory.
Thus it is with every department of domestic
work. There are no modern improvements, no
machinery, no conveniences of any sort. All do-
mestic labor is performed in the same crude and
laborious manner which prevailed in Bible times.
For our missionary’s wife to undertake to do her
own housework in India would not only shorten her
days, but would consume every moment of her
time, every particle of her strength, and would
thus render her incapable of assisting her husband
in his missionary labors or of carrying on an inde-
pendent mission work of her own, while for the
nominal sum which one would pay an ordinary
hired girl in America (say $2.50, $3, or $4 per week)
one may support six, eight, or ten domestic servants
in India and board none of them.
Besides this, for you to do your own work in that
country offends the natives. They regard you as a
low-caste, mean individual, who has come to their
country to rob them of their rightful occupation
and means of support. Moreover, having the serv-
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
197
ants in your own home affords another opportunity
of usefulness — you are enabled to show, to at least
your own servants, what a Christian home is like,
and to live before them a Christian life. They
gather at your family altar every day, hear the
Bible read and explained, and listen to the prayer
for them as well as for others. This is the most
powerful of all preaching, and it is a common thing
to see servants of the missionaries converted to God
and living upright Christian lives through the influ-
ence of their missionary master and mistress. Much
more could be said in regard to this servant ques-
tion ; indeed, a volume could be written in justifica-
tion of the practice of employing servants in India,
but more is unnecessary, except perhaps to intimate
the fact that the servants are paid from the private
salary of the missionary, and this expense therefore
brings no additional outlay to the Missionary Society
in the home land. The salary of a Methodist mis-
sionary in India is about equivalent to the average
salary of a Methodist pastor in America.
Many of our English-speaking churches in India
are entirely self-supporting, paying the entire mis-
sionary salary, all the incidental expenses of their
church, giving to the missionary cause, and in many
cases supporting native preachers and other workers
in addition ; other English-speaking churches are
able to meet only a part of their own pastor’s salary,
the remainder being paid by our Missionary Society.
Many of our native Christian churches, also, are
self-supporting, while others are so in part.
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THE ASSISTANT MISSIONARY
In America there are certain duties which de-
volve upon the wife of a Methodist pastor. She is
supposed to fill a place in the church and commu-
nity which is peculiarly her own, and in some cases,
especially where she has a family of small children,
and ill health, she finds the requirements by no
means light, and at times the people of her hus-
band’s church seem to be somewhat exacting. In
India, however, the wife of the Methodist mission-
ary is herself also a missionary and has her own
peculiar missionary labors to perform, although for
these services she receives no separate, independent
salary from any source. True, a married mission-
ary receives a somewhat larger salary than the single
missionary, and at the birth of each child the salary
is again increased some fifteen or twenty rupees, and
this sum may be supposed to meet all the actual re-
quirements of his living expenses. It may be that the
missionary’s wife was formerly a regular missionary,
sent out by the Woman’s Foreign Missionary So-
ciety of the Methodist Episcopal Church and sup-
ported by them. Her salary was then equal to the
salary of any unmarried male missionary supported
by the parent board. On her wedding day, how-
ever, she ceases to receive her regular salary from
the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, and on
that day she becomes an “ assistant missionary” of
the parent board. Her duties are designated by the
Conference, and she is expected to report her work
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
199
in the regular manner. Her missionary labors re-
quire all her strength and all her time, so that, as
the little children come to her home, she is obliged
to hire an ayah (native nurse) to care for them.
Nevertheless, she receives no compensation for her
missionary labor except in the consciousness of help-
ing on the great cause which she has learned to love
so dearly.
Is her husband’s salary sufficient to meet all the
family needs ? Yes; under ordinary circumstances
it is. While both parties keep well and strong, and
there are no children to be educated, the mission-
ary’s salary is sufficient. If the health of husband
or wife become seriously impaired, the parent board
will pay their passage home to America, and possi-
bly, in the former case, the husband may receive
half his regular salary during his leave of absence.
If, however, there are children to be educated, there
are no means sufficient to meet this emergency.
There comes a time when both missionary and mis-
sionary assistant break down in health and must re-
turn to their native land. In this case he must of
necessity take one of the small appointments in his
home Conference. He has been long away from
home, and there is now no place for him in his own
Conference. Younger men, who have been in the
Conference during all the years of his absence, have
crowded him out. He is now broken in health.
During his absence he has not been cultivating his
oratorical powers, but rather striving to simplify the
Gospel of Jesus Christ in such a manner as that the
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WITHIN THE PURDAH
ignorant natives could understand the message.
o o
He is not a “ star preacher; ” and the probabilities
are that before he has been long in his native land
he will be ranked among the superannuated of his
Conference. In this case he has nothing laid up,
and no income sufficient to support himself and fam-
ily. Had his wife also received a salary for the work
which she actually did for the parent board, as an
assistant missionary in India, all this would prob-
ably be different. The injustice of such an arrange-
ment must be apparent to all. And yet I never
heard that any missionary’s wife ever intimated a
desire to receive compensation for her missionary
toil, or dreamed that there could be any injustice in
her being expected to give her strength, time, and
labor to help on the great cause to which she and
her husband have both consecrated their lives. On
the contrary, she feels it to be a great privilege and
joy to be permitted to thus spend and be spent for the
blessed Master. Indeed, I very much doubt whether
these noble, consecrated, self-sacrificing women
would, at first, and readily, accept a salary from the
parent board, even if it were offered. And yet is
it not the least that we at home can do, to recog-
nize the injustice, the self-sacrifice, and the heroism
involved ? Instead of circulating, or helping to cir-
culate, a damaging report to the effect that mission-
aries go out to India on a fat salary, to live at their
ease and to be waited upon by servants, should we
not appreciate the fact that, while our Missionary
Society pays a moderate, reasonable, sufficient
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION 201
salary for the service of one missionary, that Society
actually receives in return for this one salary the
consecrated, earnest, devoted service of two effi-
cient missionaries instead of one. In the secular
world no such thing would be expected or endured.
If the husband is employed by any firm in this or
any other country, he is paid for his labor, of course,
and is paid a sufficient sum to enable him to support
his family, but nothing is expected of his wife. If
he fill a chair in any college or university, he only
is expected to teach. If his wife take a class, or
classes, she is paid for the labor which she actually
performs. Why should not the missionary’s wife
be treated with equal courtesy and consideration,
not to say justice? Perhaps you’ll affirm, in reply,
that the wives of missionaries are not all efficient
workers; that many of them are not even thor-
oughly consecrated, earnest Christian women ; that
their work is by no means universally satisfactory
either in quality or quantity ; and that even the most
efficient are liable to be disqualified for service by
impaired health, household cares, and other domestic
causes. All this we readily concede ; but is it not
equally true that when a young man presents him-
self to the Missionary Society of our Church as a
candidate for the foreign field his wife’s character
and qualifications are taken into consideration al-
most as much as his own? And at each Annual
Conference, when the appointments are to be made,
is it not a fact that the qualifications and efficiency of
the missionary’s wife have much to do with the final
202
WITHIN THE PURDAH
decision ? Certainly no reasonable person could re-
quire that a salary be paid indiscriminately to the
wife of every missionary who is employed by the
parent board of our Church. It is only where ac-
tual service is rendered, and service which is ac-
ceptable and satisfactory to the board, that we feel
compensation is due. Of course the Missionary So-
ciety must always be free to employ whom they will,
and to be judge of qualifications and of efficiency.
The missionary’s wife, or “assistant missionary,”
as she is called by the parent board, has charge of
all the Bible women in connection with her hus-
band’s church. They meet in her home several
times a week, and receive instruction from her.
This is practically a normal school on a small scale.
She teaches these Bible readers how to do their work,
how to read and expound the Scriptures to the na-
tive women whom they visit in their zenana homes.
Often she goes with them to these zenana homes,
teaches for them, sings and prays with the native
women, and has the whole under her immediate care
and supervision. Besides this, she is also a zenana
missionary, and personally visits a large number of
zenana homes regularly, doing the same work that
is done by the regular zenana missionary who is sup-
ported by the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society,
except that she -does not have assistant zenana
workers under her charge. In many cases she also
has charge of native girls’ schools, like the native
boys’ schools which her husband superintends; and
she engages native Christian women to teach, such
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
203
as have been educated in girls’ missionary board-
ing schools. She may have from one to a dozen or
more of these day schools in the native city, for the
daughters of heathen parents. She conducts all the
examinations, keeps in touch with the teachers,
visits the schools often, and superintends the whole
work. In addition to this she may have in her own
home a girls’ boarding school, where she acts as
matron, chief teacher, superintendent, friend,
mother, and guardian to all the inmates. It is not
usual that the wives of missionaries do street preach-
ing in the public bazar ; but some of them do this
also, and with great success.
THE MISSIONARY EVANGELIST
The work of the missionary evangelist, or pioneer
missionary, in India is different from evangelistic
work in America, although in some cases it may
appear to be similar. The missionary evangelist,
however, whose work we are about to describe, is
not an assistant ; he does not go to churches which
are already organized and in good working order
to hold revival services, and thus render assistance
to the regular pastor in charge. He is an inde-
pendent missionary, and a pioneer. He may be a
presiding elder or the regular pastor of some native
church, devoting himself to this specific pioneer
evangelistic work during certain seasons of the year
only.
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In a canvas-covered cart or wagon, containing a
supply of provisions for his own use, a small medi-
cine chest, a few tools, a change of apparel, a sup-
ply of tracts for distribution — translated into vari-
ous Hindustani languages — his Bible and hymnal,
and accompanied by one or two missionary associates
and perhaps several native Christian assistants,
together with a servant or two, he travels from
village to village, stopping at each place a few
days or a week, as the work opens up before him or
as each particular case may require, preaching the
Gospel, distributing tracts, organizing churches and
Sabbath schools, establishing missions, and healing
the sick. There may or may not be a medical mis-
sionary in the company ; in any case the missionary
evangelist has sufficient knowledge of ordinary dis-
eases and their remedies to be able to use to advan-
tage a small supply of simple drugs, and the poor,
suffering natives are glad enough to enjoy the
benefits which they can derive from these medi-
cines. There are no English physicians or sur-
geons in any of these native villages, nor are there
educated native doctors ; so that all the sick of the
community are obliged to suffer on without relief
until the disease spends itself and they recover, or
until their sufferings are cut short by death.
There is no farm life, no country life, in India
which can be compared with or is in any respect
similar to the farm and country life of America.
The land is owned by a few wealthy natives. No
poor workingman is able to own a foot of land in
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
205
his own right. He rents his farm, which is meas-
ured by feet or by rods and not by acres. He also
rents a tiny room, ten by ten feet square, or twelve
by twelve, in some village near by, where all the
farmers or country folk like himself are crowded
together as closely as they are found in the great
cities. The farm which they have rented is not
large enough to afford them room for a dwelling,
and even if it were, they dare not live upon it on
account of the many venomous serpents which in-
fest the jungles and the wild beasts which prowl
about. Early in the morning these farmers, with
their wives, sous, and daughters, all who are old
enough to work, go to the little patch of ground
which they have rented and there they labor during
the whole day, tilling the soil or gathering the grain
according to the season of the year. With the
ci'udest kind of plow, merely two sticks fastened
together, and with the help of two bullocks, the sod
is broken up, and the wheat, rice, gram, or other
seed is sown. Even if the season is favorable and
the harvest abundant, the poor farmer realizes
but a meager sum for his labor, as a large percent-
age of his crop must go to his landlord to pay the
yearly rental for his mud hut and small piece of
ground.
During the night the villagers for the most part
sleep on the ground out of doors, in the roads,
alleys, and lanes of their small country village as it
is too hot in the tiny little room which constitutes
their home, and which has no window or other
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means of ventilation except the one door, and in
which the family cooking has been done during the
evening.
In some parts of India, in Bengal at least, it
sometimes happens that while the villagers are
sound asleep on the ground their babies, one, two,
three, or more, are carried off by a pack of jackals,
which have approached the village without arousing
the sleepers and snatched away the wee infants be-
fore their parents were aware of their presence. Of
course the jackals are soon pursued, and in making
their flight the infants are dropped, usually badly
bitten, scratched, and torn. These infants, torn and
bleeding from the teeth and claws of the jackals, are
sometimes brought to the missionary evangelist,
who tenderly dresses the wounds, inserting stitches
where necessary, and bandaging the lacerated limbs
as well as possible with the materials at hand.
When in such a village as this the news is circu-
lated that the white-faced missionaries are approach-
ing, a few of its leading citizens will start out on
foot to meet the distinguished guests, who are
usually tendered a cordial welcome and treated
with royal courtesy by these simple country folk.
The sick people are brought to him for treatment,
and while he ministers to their needs and a few
suffering ones are relieved, even in part, his fame
spreads abroad and he is reckoned to be well-nigh
a god. Early in the morning he begins his song
and prayer service in the open air or under the
shade of a tree. This soon gives place to the
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
207
preaching of the Gospel, which continues during
all the cool part of the day and late into the night,
interspersed with Gospel hymns, prayer, and care
of the sick. Sometimes a few only are convinced
of the truth of the Christian religion, renounce
their idols, profess their faith, and are baptized by
the traveling missionary. In some cases, however,
a few of the leading members of the community
are converted to God, and then the revival spreads
until the whole village have turned from their idols
and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour,
Redeemer, and Friend. In either case, whether
only a few or many have been converted to God, it
is necessary to establish here a native Christian
church, to send a missionary to this village who
may live among the people, conduct regular reli-
gious services, and instruct these people further in
the Christian faith, which they have so recently
espoused. Of course they are as yet very ignorant
and know but little concerning God’s word or his
great plan of salvation. If left without further in-
struction, help, and sympathy, the probabilities are
that those already converted will be persuaded by
their heathen friends to return to their heathen be-
lief and idol worship. A great difficulty confronts
the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal
Church in such cases as this. It is impossible to
send a thoroughly equipped and qualified mission-
ary to each village of this sort. The regular
American missionaries of the parent board and
also of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Societv
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208
WITHIN THE PURDAH
are too few in number to supply such appointments
as these. They cannot be spared from the more
important and responsible positions which they fill
in the great centers. We have many native mis-
sionary assistants — pastor-teachers, local preachers,
exhorters, catechists, Bible readers, zenana workers,
etc. — but all of these are, for the most part, fully
employed. The policy which has been pursued in
cases like the above is that of sending to these
villages a native Christian zenana worker, Bible
reader, catechist, or pastor-teacher; some one, the
best available, who is superior in education and
Christian character to the people for whom he or she
is to labor. This is the best economy, and it is the
only thing to be done under existing circumstances ;
and yet it must be apparent to all that these country
villages where the people have but recently been
converted to God and are still without knowledge,
education in divine things, or strength of Christian
character — the veriest “babes in Christ” — sorely
need the help and instruction of a strong mission-
ary. What is to be done? Unless the Church
awaken to the need and send help speedily — more
missionaries and more money — the cause of God
must suffer and much of the ground already gained
will be lost. Who is God’s steward? Let him hear
the call and obey. Perhaps there is no missionary
work in India which is more interesting, more en-
grossing, more full of promise, and altogether more
encouraging than this evangelistic work. It has,
however, many hindrances, many difficulties, and
The New Missionary and her Moonshee
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
211
many disadvantages. It cannot be carried on dur-
ing all parts of the year. The intense heat of the
hot season and the rain of the monsoon render
these tours hazardous, if not impossible.
While this evangelistic work is carried on in
some denominations by evangelists whose work is
confined to this field, it is not by any means pecul-
iar to them. The regular missionary of the parent
board, the assistant missionary of the parent board,
the zenana missionary of the Woman’s Foreign
Missionary Society, the teacher missionary of the
Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, and the med-
ical missionary of both boards at times engage in
this evangelistic work. Indeed, many of them make
regular and stated evangelistic tours to the country
villages surrounding their missionary homes.
MISSIONARIES OF THE WOMAN'S FOREIGN
MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF THE METHODIST
EPISCOPAL CHURCH
Woman’s work in India embraces zenana teach-
ing, Sunday schools, high schools, normal schools,
boarding schools, orphanages, village or evangel-
istic work, medical missions (including hospitals,
dispensaries, training schools for nurses, etc.), and
every department of Christian work found in Amer-
ica or in any Christian country.
There are three distinct classes of missionaries
sent to India by the Woman’s Foreign Missionary
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Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church — the
teacher missionary, the zenana missionary, and the
medical missionary.
Like the regular male missionary of the parent
board, each of these lady missionaries must first
master, more or less perfectly, one of the many
languages spoken by the peoples of Hindustan.
To do this one year is usually allowed, during which
time the “ new ” missionary makes her home in an
established mission in some center, where she ren-
ders whatever assistance she may be able in connec-
tion with the general work of the mission, mean-
while pursuing her study of the language which she
has selected. Of course everything is new and
strange to her, but the zenana teacher or medical
missionary with whom she is making her tempo-
rary home is always willing and glad to do her part
toward initiating the newcomer, and so she pro-
gresses, by gradual and easy steps, in her study of
the vernacular and also in knowledge of regular
missionary methods.
After chhota haziri, at about five or six o’clock in
the morning, the new missionary, rested and looking
fresh in her thin white dress, may be seen with her
books and pencil, sitting on the shady side of the house
in the deep veranda, in company with her moonshce
(the native Mohammedan who teaches the Hindu-
stani language), or pundit (the Brahmin who instructs
you in Marathee or Gujarathee). She is struggling
with one of these strange foreign tongues, and will
continue her study for one, two, or three hours.
A Moonshee (Mohammedan Teacher)
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
215
We need not disturb her. Here she spends her
mornings evei'y day with her teacher until she be-
come sufficiently proficient in the language of her
choice to take charge of an independent mission.
THE MISSIONARY TEACHER OF THE WOMAN'S
FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY
Having passed the required examination in the
vernacular, our new missionary teacher now takes
over charge of the school or schools to which she
has been appointed by the Woman’s Foreign Mis-
sionary Society. It may be that the teacher pre-
viously in charge has been removed by death, or
has been obliged to return to America on sick leave,
and this new missionary has been appointed to fill
the vacant place. Otherwise it may be that the
field to which she has been appointed is a new one
and the school has not yet been organized. In the
latter case she rents a bungalow (large English resi-
dence), with a more or less extensive compound
(grounds) surrounding it. The location of this
building is a matter of considerable importance, as
it is to serve the double purpose of a missionary
home and a Christian girls’ boarding school. It
must not be too far from the native Christian
church nor too near to the native city. It should
be, above all things, situated in a healthful part of
the English town.
Correct legal papers of agreement must be drawn
216
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up between the native landlord and the missionary
teacher, otherwise there may be, later on, dispute
and disagreement as to the monthly rental agreed
upon between the parties. When feasible, how-
ever, this property is purchased by the mission, in
which case any such misunderstanding with native
landlord is obviated and many advantages are
gained. In either case the house must now be fur-
nished. In some parts of India the floors will be
matted by native men, who bring to the house the
raw material, reed-grass or split bamboo, braid it
to fit each particular room, and put it down as fast
as it is ready.
Heavy furniture for the house may be rented or
purchased. Often second-hand furniture is pur-
chased at very reasonable rates.
Servants are engaged even before the house is
furnished. The news is soon spread abroad that an
American missionary lady is establishing a home,
and servants come from all directions presenting
their credentials and seeking service. Domingo,
the cook, is the first necessity; then come the “ boot-
lair ” (butler), and the hamal , who washes dishes,
cleans lamps, dusts furniture, attends the door, etc. ;
the dhobie (laundryman), ayah (chambermaid and
nurse), the malce (gardener), and the bihishti (water
carrier). There is always difficulty in securing the
service of competent, trustworthy, and efficient
servants in the beginning. It requires experience
to enable one to examine the credentials and to
judge correctly as to the qualifications of each serv-
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
217
ant ; but soon or late the new missionary will be
almost certain to find the kind of servants that she
needs, and such as will remain with her for years.
When the house is properly furnished and settled,
and the servants have adjusted themselves to their
several duties and learned the wishes and methods
of their new mistress, and all things have been
made clean and sweet and wholesome, the pupils
begin to gather from all directions, some even com-
ing from distant towns and villages. They are the
children of native Christian parents, and are taken
into this American Christian home as boarders and
inmates. Some of the children are orphans, and
are adopted by the mission. Others are half orphans,
and are given to the mission by the one surviving
parent.
The next necessity which arises is that of engag-
ing competent native Christian teachers for each of
the various departments in this growing school.
These are usually chosen from the advanced pupils
in the older Methodist girls’ boarding schools in
other parts of India. These Christian teachers may
be of native (Hindustan or Mohammedan), Eura-
sian, or English parentage. The majority of these
assistant teachers are Eurasian and wear English
dress, but they all live in European style and sit at
the same table with the American missionary who
has established the home, organized the school, and
who presides as mistress, chief teacher, superin-
tendent, mother, and friend. It devolves upon her
to decide all matters of importance and to maintain
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strict discipline among both pupils and teachers.
She determines at what hour they shall all retire to
rest at night, at what hour they shall arise in the
morning, how much time shall be given to recrea-
tion, how much to study, and what proportion shall
be devoted to domestic service. All letters coming
to and going from this home must be first opened
and read by her.
The children in this school are required to live in
native style. There are no chairs or benches in
the recitation room or rooms. The children all sit
upon the floor in real oriental style, with legs crossed
and heads bowed. They are all attired in pure
white sari, and none of them are allowed to speak
the English language or to take up English studies
until after they have passed the matriculation exam-
ination in their own native tongue. At night they all
sleep together in a large dormitory, or, if the school
be large, there may be several of these. In some
well-established schools these little native children
are provided with native cots. In many cases they
are not allowed this luxury, but each little girl wraps
her sari about her in native style, and lies down to
rest upon a hay mattress or a folded comfortable on
the floor. In some schools the children do all, or
nearly all, the domestic work. They live on native
food, curry and rice, principally. This they cook
themselves, the girls taking turns by the day or by
the week. They laundry their own sari, have en-
tire charge of the dormitories and schoolrooms, and
in many cases serve the missionary and her staff of
The Girls’ Boarding School of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, Bombay, India
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
221
teachers at table, washing the dishes afterward, and
doing many other domestic services in the mission-
ary home.
Of course it is impossible to describe minutely
the exact kind and amount of work which devolves
upon pupils in these schools, as each particular
school has rules peculiar to itself. Indeed, in some
of the Church of England mission schools, and
perhaps in those of other denominations also, it is
not expected of the pupils that they do any do-
mestic work in the apartments of the missionary or
of the teachers. In all such schools, however, the
pupils are taught ordinary cooking and everything
which pertains to the care of an Indian woman’s
home ; and each little girl is required to do her
own sewing. In some schools the wheat is pur-
chased unground and the little girls are required to
grind it, according to native custom, in the early
morning, with the native mill, such as was used in
Bible times.
In addition to this they have their regular hours
for study, for recitation, and for play. On the Sab-
bath day they all march together, headed by their
teacher or teachers, to the regular services of the
native Christian church and to Sabbath school.
In addition to the care and superintendency of
this home and boarding school by our missionary
teacher of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society,
there may be several girls’ day schools in the native
city which she superintends and has entire man-
agement of, such as those we have described above
222
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as being under the care of the regular male mis-
sionary of the parent board.
The policy of keeping the pupils in these native
Christian girls’ boarding schools in native costume
and requiring them to live in native style is based
upon two conditions and has two objects in view,
namely, in cases where these girls continue in
school a sufficient length of time to qualify them to
serve as Bible readers, zenana workers, or assistant
teachers their salary must of necessity be small, and
in no case can it be sufficient to maintain them in
comfortable English homes provided with chairs,
tables, beds, and all the furniture, crockery, pic-
tures, etc., which go to make up an ordinary Eng-
lish or American home. It will be, however, suffi-
ciently large to maintain them comfortably in native
style. If during school life they are taught to live
in English style, with all the luxuries of English
home life, they will become discontented, restive,
and unhappy under the privations that must be
theirs in future life. In case these pupils marry,
before or after the conclusion of their school course,
the result is the same. They must marry native or
Eurasian men, who receive a salary far too small
to maintain them comfortably in English style.
The second principle upon which this policy is
based involves, to the Missionary Society, a question
of economy. The amount of money in the mission-
ary treasury is not sufficient to educate a large num-
ber of pupils, if they are to be maintained in English
style during their school days. There is a very
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
223
large number of children of native Christian parent-
age who desire the advantages of Christian educa-
tion, but whose parents are able to pay little or noth-
ing for it. There is also a large number of orphans
or half orphans to whom a Christian boarding
school is a boon indeed. The question to be con-
sidered is, simply, is it better, with the means
available, to receive into our girls’ boarding schools
a small number of pupils, to whom we will supply
all the comforts (to them luxuries) of a properly
equipped American girls’ boarding school, or, on
the other hand, shall we maintain these native
girls in native style — thereby economizing our
money — and thus make it possible to accommodate
a very much larger number of pupils? On all ac-
counts it is deemed wiser to follow the latter policy ;
and thus our mission schools are crowded with
pupils, and large numbers of native girls who other-
wise must remain in ignorance are housed, clothed,
taught, and fitted for lives of usefulness and
independence.
THE ZENANA MISSIONARY OF THE WOMAN'S
FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY
When the zenana missionary has completed her
term of apprenticeship, and has successfully passed
the Conference examination in the vernacular, she
is given over charge of the independent mission to
which she has been appointed by the Woman’s
Foreign Missionary Society.
224
WITHIN THE PURDAH
As in the case of our teacher missionary, this
may be an old, well-established mission left vacant
by death or removal, or it may be a new field where
she is expected to establish zenana mission work.
In the latter case, property suited to the purpose
which she has in view must be rented or purchased,
servants engaged, furniture secured, and native or
Eurasian zenana missionary assistants engaged.
These assistants are usually called from older
missions in other parts of India, and are taken, as
were the assistant teachers, from among the senior
pupils of our native Christian girls’ boarding
schools.
To each of these assistant zenana workers a
stipend of ten rupees per month, with board, is
considered a good and sufficient salary. In some
missions, however, a less sum than this is paid and
in some a larger amount.
In these zenana missionary homes chhota haziri is
usually served at five, five-thirty, or six o’clock in
the morning, the zenana missionary and her assist-
ants coming down to the dining room and partaking
of their little breakfast together as any other meal
is served. Immediately after the tea and toast the
missionary and her assistants drive to the native
city in their missionary wagon or carriage, a large
covered rig, accommodating six or eight persons.
Arriving at some central point in the native city,
or driving up and down through the narrow streets,
the zenana workers separate, each going to her
respective zenana home where she is to instruct the
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
225
zenana women. She is supposed to teach these
women knitting, sewing, fancywork, reading,
writing, spelling, and all the rudiments of an
ordinary education. Her principal object, how-
ever, is to teach them the truths of our holy
Christian religion ; and with this end in view the
Bible is her chief text-book. She may have several
pupils in one home. Perhaps the master of the
house has several wives ; he also may have several
sons who are married, and his daughters-in-law
make their home with him.
All natives of India are bitterly prejudiced
against Christian missionaries. They believe them
to be spies and proselyters who have been hired
by the English or American government to come
to India for the express purpose of breaking the
caste of the native and of leading away his wife
and daughter from their home, from their religious
belief, from their caste, and from all that they hold
sacred. He holds the Englishman in awe and
ostensible respect, as his master and conqueror,
but at heart he hates and despises him. He knows
very little about the American, but likes him better
than the Englishman on general principles, not
knowing why.
Nevertheless, he has, after much persuasion, con-
sented to allow the zenana missionary to visit his
wives and daughters at stated hours on certain days
of the week, regularly, for the purpose of teaching
them. Why does he do this? His women folk
are too high-caste and too wealthy to be allowed to
226
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soil their hands with work. They have servants
who wait upon them — bathing the person, dressing
the hair, and making the toilet altogether. They
cannot read or write. Many of them have never
seen a paper or a book. They are not allowed to
go outside of the four great walls which surround
his courtyard. There is no variety in their lives,
no change to break the dull monotony. They see
no strange faces, they hear little or no news, they
have little to think about except their own miseries
and ailments. Therefore they naturally grow
restive, irritable, jealous, and hysterical. They
think so much about every ache and pain as to
develop each particular ache and pain into a disease,
in their distorted imagination. Thus this wealthy
man’s family becomes troublesome. He is tried
and driven to his wit’s end, not knowing what to
do with or for his women folk. He hears about
the zenana missionary lady. He fears her, dis-
trusts her, and perhaps even despises her ; but she
would teach his wives and his daughters-in-law
fancy work ; she would amuse and interest them ;
she would serve as a new toy (they never have any
toys), and so he decides to allow the zenana mis-
sionary to make regular visits to his home for the
purpose of instructing his wives and daughters-in-
law. Before consenting to visit his home, however,
our zenana missionary stipulates that she be allowed
to teach the Bible to the women of the household.
This, also, he finally agrees to, but takes precaution
against its consequences.
A Wealthy High-caste Zenana Lady of Bombay
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
229
He instructs his wives and daughters that he has
invited the zenana missionary lady from America
or from England to visit them ; that she will teach
them how to sew, how to knit, how to embroider,
and how to do all sorts of beautiful fancyworlc.
Then he tells them that she is a spy and a pros-
elyter, and that they must beware of her ; that she
has been hired by the English or American gov-
ernment to come to India for the purpose of robbing
them of their religious beliefs, idols, home, friends,
and caste. He assures them that he has consented
for her to visit them in order that they may learn
the fancywork and because he feels that he can
trust them. They must not believe anything she
may tell them about her Christian religion ; they
must not believe the Bible she reads to them, be-
cause it is all false and will lead them astray.
Thus are the minds of the little native women
poisoned and prejudiced against their zenana mis-
sionary teacher before they have ever seen her face.
The day for her visit is arranged for, the hour ap-
pointed, and all the little women of the native
household are in readiness for her reception. They
have donned their best silk garments and wear all
their jewels. They are in a flutter of excitement
in anticipation of the strange guest.
Of course they tender her a most warm and cor-
dial reception. A native woman is always digni-
fied, always courteous, the very soul of politeness ;
she is incapable of rudeness.
The zenana missionary does little in the way of
230
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teaching on the occasion of her first visit ; she must
first become personally acquainted with her pupils.
She makes herself generally agreeable, answering
all their questions, the first of which will probably
be, “ How old are you? ” Then, “ Are you mar-
ried? ” If she answer in the negative, they do not
believe her. It is incredible to the native of India
that any man or woman should arrive at the age of
maturity unmarried. If she answer in the affirma-
tive, the next question is, ‘ ‘ How many children have
you? ” All questions are answered kindly. The
zenana missionary allows her new pupils to examine
the buttons on her dress, her breastpin, her cuffs,
and all the details of her European costume. This
is not considered rude among Indians, and, of
course, English dress is a great curiosity in such a
home as this. When she becomes a little better ac-
quainted some of the younger women may take
down her hair and toy with it as she goes on with
her lesson. They are sweet, gentle women, with a
delicate sense of propriety and a dignity so innate,
so pretty, and so genuine that even the most refined
American or English woman is liable to feel some
strange sense of embarrassment in the presence of
a company of such charming creatures ; for, indeed,
they are charming in person and in manner, and as
you come to know them intimately you will find
that they are just as sweet and just as charming in
character, except for the strange heathen beliefs and
prejudices, which are the fault of their birthplace
and surroundings rather than their own.
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
231
The new teacher finds her pupils bright, intelli-
gent, quick to learn, and altogether interesting.
They ask eager questions and remember readily.
They have intelligent minds and are able to reason
out and to answer ; so that the zenana worker must
be a clever woman in order to give them logical and
reasonable answers and conclusions to their argu-
ments. When the heat becomes intense, at half
past nine, ten, ten-thirty, or eleven o’clock A. M.,
according to the season of the year and the part of
India where this work is being carried on, our
zenana missionary workers gather into the mission-
ary carriage and return to their home, where break-
fast is in waiting. After breakfast family prayers
are conducted, the servants attending, as in the case
of the regular missionary of the parent board.
Breakfast and family worship over, the zenana mis-
sionary gives instruction to the servants as to the
household duties of the day, meets her zenana mis-
sionary assistants, instructs them as to their various
tasks, or listens to the report of each. After this she
repairs to her room for the purpose of letter or re-
port writing. At one or two o’clock P. M. tiffin is
served, after which the zenana missionary and her
assistants may have a Bible reading together or a
prayer service, or they may take a rest for half an
hour or so.
At four, four-thirty, or five o’clock P. M. the mis-
sionary carriage again waits in front of our zenana
missionary bungalow , and presently the zenana mis-
sionary and her assistants start out again for other
232
WITHIN THE PURDAH
zenana homes, where they are to teach, and from
which they do not return until six, seven, or eight
o’clock in the evening, according to the season of
the year and to the part of India in which they are
living.
After their return the butler announces, “ Khana
taiyar hai , Miss Sahib” (Dinner is ready, Miss Sir).
After dinner there may be a church service to at-
tend, or the zenana missionary may meet her as-
sistants, hear their reports, and instruct them in the
best methods of expounding the Holy Scriptures
and of winning the souls of zenana women to Christ.
In the beginning the work of the zenana mission-
ary is very disheartening, but as these earnest, con-
secrated women persevere, going from house to
house and spending one, two, or three hours daily
in each home, teaching these poor, imprisoned, but
really gentle and lovely women the truths of our
blessed Gospel, the seed is sown in good ground
and must ere long bring forth an abundant har-
vest. The minds of these zenana women are far
too fertile, their judgment too clear, and their rea-
soning faculties too bright for them to be long de-
ceived. The day comes when their judgments are
convinced of the truth of the Christian religion, and
when this at length happens there is no more rest
for the little woman until she has taken up her cross,
left all, and followed Christ. It means much foi
her to do this, but she has the courage of her con-
victions. Her mind is no sooner convinced than
her heart responds, and she soon becomes willing
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
233
to sacrifice all that she may gain Christ. She an-
nounces to her husband and family the fact that she
has espoused the cause of her Lord Jesus Christ and
fully believes in the Christian religion, and wishes
to become a Christian herself. It is a bold thing-
for her to make such an announcement in her
heathen home. The zenana missionary teacher is
now advised that her visits must be discontinued.
The little pupil is locked up in a small, dark room
and is scourged with many stripes daily in the hope
that she will soon renounce her new faith and de-
clare her intention of returning to the faith of her
family. This, however, she does not do. She is
firm. She bears her torture with fortitude, in silence,
and with the utmost patience receives all harsh
words and cruel treatment. She is, perhaps, half
starved and obliged to suffer unutterable tortures.
Alone, without the zenana missionary teacher, who
has come to be her truest friend, without the privi-
lege of making known her sufferings to any sympa-
thizing soul, she weeps and prays in her dark and
solitary room. Finally, however, she makes her
escape, or perhaps is beaten, kicked, and thrust out
into the street at the dead of night because she will
not yield. She is a stranger in the outside world.
She never before stood on the street of a city out-
side the high walls of her husband’s house. All
seems strange to her, and she is timid and alarmed.
At length, however, in her fear and desperation, she
inquires of some passing woman the way to the mis-
sionary bungalow. Everybody knows where it is.
234
WITHIN THE PURDAH
the zenana missionary home, and she is soon di-
rected aright. With fear and trembling she makes
her way to the home of her teacher friend. At last
she stands at the door, her heart throbbing with
mingled feelings of fear and joy. Timidly she
knocks, and is ushered into the presence of her
teacher, at whose feet she falls, convulsed with
sobs. She soon tells her story, and is allowed to
remain in the missionary home, at least for the
present. Perhaps her friends will come for her
within a few hours and tear her away by force, only
to renew their beatings and starvation, or perhaps
they will allow her to remain with the zenana mis-
sionary, threatening her life if she should ever re-
turn to her home or be found seeking an interview
with any member of her husband’s family. If she
be a mother, she can never see her children again.
Her family consider that she has disgraced them
all, broken her caste, and ruined herself and them.
In the Church of England Zenana Missionary
Home, of Krishnagar, Bengal, there are ten,
twelve, or more of these women, who have either
been violently driven from their homes in the man-
ner above described or who have made their escape
by stealth, and who are now glad to labor in any
way to maintain themselves while they study the
blessed Gospel of Jesus Christ, with the hope that
some day they may be able to go to the women of
their own caste and instruct them in the blessed re-
ligion which they have espoused and for which they
have suffered so much and forsaken all else.
A Zenana Missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church and Her Assistants in Bombay
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
237
I was in that home when one of these little
women, who had been separated from her three
children for a period of three or four years, was per-
mitted to meet her eldest son. During all these
years she had never seen any member of her fam-
ily, except her father, who paid her occasional
visits. Her mother-heart longed for her children,
and whenever her father came to see her she had
begged him to bring her children that she might
OO O C)
look into their faces once again. Her father in-
variably refused this request, but at length he did
bring her eldest son, and I had the privilege of wit-
nessing that sad, glad meeting. The little woman
was too overjoyed for words. She pressed her first-
born to her heart and wept and wept until everybody
present was in tears. Her father allowed the
son to remain with his mother for one half hour
only, having previously stipulated that not a word
should be spoken in regard to the Christian religion.
At the expiration of the half hour the parting came,
and it was so sad and full of pain to both parties
that we could not help doubting whether it were not
better for her never to see her son rather than to see
him for so short a time and under such restrictions.
Do not suppose from the above that the zenana
missionary seeks to break up the home of the native
zenana woman, or that she endeavors by any means
to induce her to forsake home and family. On
the contrary, the zenana missionary makes use of
every effort in her power, every argument and every
influence she possesses, to bring about harmony be-
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WITHIN THE PURDAH
tween the zenana woman who has declared her faith
in the Christian religion and her heathen family, and
to establish peace in the zenana home. Failing in
this, when the heathen parents, husband, and friends
of the little woman, feeling outraged and disgraced
by her change of faith, torture, beat, and starve her
until her life is imperiled, and she, in her despera-
tion, makes her escape from her place of torture and
imprisonment and flees for refuge to the missionary
home, or is thrust out from her home violently,
perhaps in the dead of night, and afterward finds
her way to the zenana missionary bungalow; in such
cases as these the missionary extends to her not
only sympathy and words of advice, comfort, and
tenderness, but gladly gives her the shelter and
protection which she so much needs.
THE MEDICAL MISSIONARY OF THE WOMAN'S
FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY
Like the teacher and the zenana missionary, the
medical missionary of the Woman’s Foreign Mis-
sionary Society must serve as an apprentice in some
well-established medical mission for a year or more,
studying the native language, acquainting herself
with the methods of medical mission work, and be-
coming familiar with the diseases peculiar to India
and with their treatment.
At the expiration of this time, having passed the
required Conference examinations, she is appointed
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
239
to an independent medical mission, where, perhaps,
she takes over charge of a missionary hospital for
women and children, a missionary dispensary for
women and children, and a medical missionary
training school for nurses; or it may be, as in
the case of the teacher and zenana missionaries,
that there is a new field, and the hospital, dispen-
sary, and training school for nurses are to be
started, organized, and established by herself. In
the latter case, after the property for the medical
mission has been selected and rented or purchased,
the house or houses furnished, the servants en-
gaged, and all things put in order, native and Eura-
sian women, old and young, gather from all direc-
tions, applying to be received as student nurses in
this medical missionary training school. It re-
quires considerable tact, skill, and judgment to
discriminate wisely between these applicants, and
to receive into the school only the most intelligent
and trustworthy — such as will develop into efficient
and reliable medical assistants.
These student nurses, for the most part, are
wholly without education. Some of them, perhaps,
are native midwives, versed in all the barbarous
treatments and remedial agents employed by the
unlettered heathen doctors in cases of confinement
as well as in medical and surgical cases. To dis-
abuse their ignorant, prejudiced, and superstitious
minds of all the errors already learned is a stupen-
dous task, and yet it is more important that these
midwives be “ unlearned ” the false principles which
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they have acquired, and taught scientific and proper
treatment, than that others, who make no profes-
sion of skill in the treatment of diseases or in the
management of confinement cases, be instructed.
For the latter, making no pretensions to knowledge
or skill, are harmless, while the native midwife is
a most dangerous individual, not only inflicting un-
utterable torture upon the poor victims who are
intrusted to her care, but often and often causing
premature death both to mother and child through
her barbarous and cruel practices.
Our medical missionary is fortunate if she have
an associate medical missionary to share her labors
and responsibilities, or even a properly trained and
efficient nurse. Without these her burdens are
heavy indeed. She has the entire charge of her
missionary home, hospital, dispensary, and training
school for nurses. The native servants are not
taught antiseptic measures and know nothing about
medical and surgical cleanliness. The medical mis-
sionary, therefore, must carefully guard every pa-
tient under her charge, else contagion, infection,
septic fever, puerperal fever, cholera, smallpox,
or leprosy may develop in the wards of her hos-
pital, and run such a violent course as to necessitate
the closing up of the institution.
Her ignorant heathen nurses in training, with no
principles of honor or morality to shield them from
temptation, must be guarded and shielded and
watched over by the medical missionary with the
utmost and most unremitting care. They must, of
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
241
course, receive daily instruction. They cannot
read, and if they are to become even moderately
efficient, trustworthy nurses, they must be taught
daily, minutely, and continuously by word of
mouth. This involves almost incessant toil on the
part of our medical missionary, to say nothing of
the patients in the hospital, in the office, and in the
dispensary, whose health and whose lives are almost
wholly dependent upon her skill, wisdom, and care-
ful management. If she be not on her guard,
acutely watchful, and intensely vigilant, some native
midwife, now a student nurse in her school, will
administer some fatal remedy to one of her patients
— perhaps an overdose of laudanum to a wee infant
— or she will practice some barbarous cruelty upon
a patient in labor, or will poison the minds of her
high-caste native patients toward her. Some sus-
picion as to the medicine, instruments, or medical
methods of the institution will arise, and increase
until a veritable panic occur, and perhaps all the
patients withdraw from the hospital in a single
hour.
The free missionary dispensary claims a certain
proportion of the medical missionary’s time,
strength, and thought. Certain hours in each day
are given to this work. There she receives, exam-
ines, and treats fifty, eighty, or even one or two
hundred patients daily, according to the age of her
establishment, size of the city, etc.
No precaution is taken by the natives of India
against contagion, and, in spite of all efforts on the
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part of the medical missionary to avoid the con-
sequences of such a condition, cases of smallpox,
leprosy, and cholera are often brought to her dis-
pensary for treatment.
Other missionaries may so adjust their hours of
work as to be indoors and under the punkah during
the intense heat of the midday sun ; the medical
missionary, however, has no choice. She must go
when she is called. It may be that at the noon
hour she will be summoned to the sick couch of a
high-caste or low-caste, rich or poor, native woman,
who resides in the very heart of the native city.
She dons her pith helmet, takes a huge umbrella
lined with green and covered with white muslin,
and drives in her close carriage to the home of the
sufferer. The native streets are very narrow, the
gutters on either side open, the rays of the sun in-
tolerable, and the stench oppressive; one’s life is
imperiled by such exposure. Perhaps she must
remain in the close, dark, small apartment of her
patient during all the long hours of that hot summer
day. Perhaps she is obliged to remain far into the
night, toiling on without food or rest, struggling to
maintain the life of her patient. Meanwhile she is
anxious and troubled as to the work at home. She
does not know what mischief may be done during
her absence. Perhaps she returns in the early
morning. She must now bathe and change her ap-
parel, to avoid any possibility of contagion to her
patients and nurses. It is then time for chhota
hasiri, and immediately after this the numerous
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
243
duties of her busy life press in upon her. It is im-
possible for her to take the rest so sorely needed,
nor is it certain that she will have an opportunity
to retire to rest on the following' night. Indeed, it
often happens that two or three such nights succeed
one another.
In the office, in the hospital, and in the dispen-
saries, while the medical missionary is examining
patients, prescribing for them, administering treat-
ment, or performing operations, the other patients
who have gathered in the reception room and who
are awaiting their turn are being entertained by
one of the native Christian nurses or Bible women,
as she reads and expounds the Holy Scriptures,
prays, and sings; and each one, as she passes in-
to the consulting room, receives a tract or a por-
tion of the New Testament in her own native
tongue.
Thus are medical and mission work carried on
together, the medical serving as a means whereby
the missionary may gain access to the hearts, homes,
sympathies, and confidence of the natives. The
native of India is not prejudiced against lady phy-
sicians, though he is bitterly prejudiced against
missionaries. It seems never to have dawned upon
the native understanding that a woman may be
both a physician and a missionary. In his time of
need, therefore, when wife, mother, daughter, or
young son is ill and suffering, perhaps nigh unto
death, he sends with all speed for the medical
woman ; and not until she has won his respect, con-
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fidence, and perhaps affection does he realize that
his physician is also a missionary.
When the work of the medical missionary is well
established, and she has spent some years in India,
she will be almost certain to establish several mis-
sionary dispensaries in the native city. These she
will visit herself as often as possible, and always
manage and superintend, but for the most part they
will be under the daily care and direction of her
senior student nurses. The medical missionary
must be a woman of superior ability, capable of
managing a variety of interests at one time and a
large number of people.
In addition to having the entire charge, manage-
ment, and superintendency of a large missionary
home and center, a missionary hospital for women
and children, one, two, three, or more missionary dis-
pensaries for women and children in the native
city, she is also a medical missionary teacher, hav-
ing a class of ignorant, untutored native women in
her home, to whom she must give medical and
nurse lectures and quizzes every day, besides an
occasional oral examination. She is also a private
practitioner of medicine, having a more or less ex-
tensive office and out practice ; and, in addition to
all this, she can never forget that she is pre-
eminently and above all things a missionary. In
her home, in her hospital, in her dispensaries, in
her office, among her student nurses, and in the
bedchamber of her out-patients she is at once the
friend, the teacher, the physician, and the mission-
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
245
ary, pointing pupils and patients to “ the Lamb of
God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
Kneeling in prayer on the ground floor in the little
dark apartment of some poor patient, quoting a pas-
sage of Scripture to some suffering woman, singing
a hymn in the death chamber, and thus following
in the footsteps of the great First Medical Mission-
ary, who left his Father’s throne and came to earth
“ to seek and to save that which was lost,” going
about healing all manner of diseases, teaching and
preaching the Gospel unto the poor.
In some cases, where the mission is young and
weak, the school, zenana, and medical work are
consolidated, forming one only, instead of three in-
dependent missions. In other cases, where the mis-
sion is old and well established, there may be two
or three associate zenana missionaries, together
with a large number of native and Eurasian assist-
ant zenana workers, in connection with one zenana
mission, two or three associate missionary teachers
in one missionary school, besides a large staff of
native and Eurasian assistant missionary teachers
and two or three associate medical missionaries in
connection with one medical mission, also a large
and efficient staff of native and Eurasian hospital
assistants and student nurses.
The author has had the privilege of enjoying the
hospitality of several missionary homes, such as are
described in the foregoing pages. She was one of
the first inmates, a guest and boarder, in the Zenana
Mission of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society
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WITHIN THE PURDAH
in Bombay, and knew something of the burdens,
struggles, anxieties, and almost innumerable diffi-
culties which confronted her dear friend, Miss S.
De Line, the zenana missionary of the Woman’s
Foreign Missionary Society, in her efforts to estab-
lish a permanent zenana mission in that great city,
and to do it in such a manner as would prove
the greatest possible success and a blessing to India.
She was intimately familiar with the everyday home
life and labors of the two beautiful and noble women,
Miss Alice Aitken and Miss Nellie Reddies, of the
Normal School Instruction Society of Lahore, Pun-
jab. She was a patient in St. Catherine’s Hospital
of the Medical Mission of the Church Missionary
Society of Amritsar, Punjab, where the peerless
trio, the Misses Sarah Hewlett, E. S. Bartlett, and
A. Sharp, preside with such grace, womanly dig-
nity and strength, carrying on a most extensive
medical mission, comprising a hospital, several mis-
sionary dispensaries in the native city, and an
important medical missionary training school for
nurses. She was also a guest during a long season
of convalescence in the Church of England Zenana
Mission House of Krishnagar, Bengal, where Miss
Tharp (now Mrs. Tharp Gill) and Miss Eleanor M.
Sampson reigned queens, as they truly are, in a
home which was in every respect a perfect Chris-
tian home and missionary center. She knows
whereof she speaks, therefore, when she affirms
that there are no homes anywhere to be found
which excel the missionary home in the observance
HEROES AND HEROINES OF ZION
247
of regular, methodical, systematic order in the care-
ful husbanding of time, in mutual kindness and
consideration each for the other — “in honor pre-
ferring one another.” Than missionaries of the
Gospel there can be no Christians more self-for-
getting, self-sacrificing, devout, earnest, zealous,
forbearing, always abounding in good works, de-
voted to the cause of the Master, efficient in his
service, and intelligently consecrated in all their
lives — whose “ works do follow them.”
Pray for the heroes and heroines of Zion !
CONCLUSION
God’s own ambassadors and yours
Have tried each pass,
But may not enter where
The money king holds sway.
Not many mighty ones are called,
Not many wise ; so are we taught
In God’s own blessed word.
The poor must have the Gospel
Preached to them.
The Lord hath chosen them,
The weak, the things of naught.
To bring to naught the things that are.
The lowly ones are chosen first.
And grow to stalwart sons and
Daughters of the living God.
He sends them forth to lift his
Banner high — to sound abroad
The triumphs of their risen Lord-
Full seven times to blow the trump
Of God and shout at his command:
When, lo ! the prison walls
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WITHIN THE PURDAH
Shall fall and crumble into dust,
As if by fire consumed.
And do you look with
Longing eye and eager heart
To see this glad fruition ?
Then give with cheerful hand
From out your hoarded store.
And watch and pray the more,
For God will surely hear
And answer prayer.
September 29, 1897.
THE END.
DATE DUE
DEMCO 38-297