favoured with from the most venerable aged man I ever knew, Meer Hadjee
Shaah,[41] the revered father of my excellent husband; who having
performed the Hadje[42] (pilgrimage) three several times, at different
periods of his eventful life--returning after each pilgrimage to his home
in Lucknow--and being a person of strict veracity, with a remarkably
intelligent mind and retentive memory, I have profited largely by his
information, and derived from it both amusement and instruction, through
many years of social intercourse. When he had numbered more than eighty
years he dwelt with hope on again performing the Hadje, where it was his
intention to rest his earthly substance until the great day of restitution,
and often expressed his wishes to have me and mine to share with him the
pilgrimage he desired to make. But this was not allowed to his prayer; his
summons arrived rather unexpectedly to those who loved and revered him for
virtues rarely equalled; happily for him, his pure soul was prepared to
meet his Creator, in whose service he had passed this life, with all
humility, and in whose mercy alone his hopes for the future were centred.

[1] 'Whatsoever alms ye shall give, of a truth God knoweth it.... Give ye
your alms openly? it is well. Do ye conceal them and give them to the
poor? This, too, will be of advantage to you, and will do away your
sins: and God is cognizant of your actions' (_Koran_, ii. 274-5).

[2] _Sayyid_, 'lord', 'chief, the class of Musalmans who claim descent
from Fatimah, daughter of the Prophet, and 'Ali, his
cousin-german and adopted son; they are divided into two branches
descended from Hasan and Husain, sons of 'Ali and Fatimah.

[3] _Mir_, a contraction of _Amir_, 'lord'.

[4] _Koran, Qur'an_.

[5] 'They who swallow down usury shall arise in the resurrection only as
he ariseth whom Satan hath infected by his touch' (_Koran_, ii.
276). But this is rather theory than practice, and many ingenious
methods are adopted to avoid the prohibition.

[6] _Begam_, feminine of _Beg_, 'lord', used to denote a Sayyid lady, like
Khanam among Pathans.

[7] Here, as elsewhere, _zenanah, zananah_, Persian _zan_, 'woman'.

[8] This is incorrect. The Koran has been translated into various
languages, but the translation is always interlineary with the
original text. In Central Asia the Musalman conquerors allowed the
Koran to be recited in Persian, instea