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106<br />
A VIZIER’S DAUGHTER – A TALE OF THE HAZARA WAR<br />
opened wide, throwing back her head as she did so. The girl reco iled in<br />
horror. The woman had no tongue. It had evidently been cut out, and<br />
the wound was not quite healed yet.<br />
Gul Begum shivered. “My God!” she murmured, and instantly the<br />
woman bent down her head again and went on with her work, then<br />
motioned to the girls to leave her. As they turned, the slave who had<br />
brought them their meal the night before came down the steps and<br />
towards them.<br />
“I thought you must all be out,” Gul Begum said, addressing her. “We<br />
are sorry, but we slept ver y late. We were fatigued after our journey. It<br />
was so hot.”<br />
“Ah, you went to bed early, and so you woke early, I suppose,” the girl<br />
thus addressed returned quite pleasantly. “What are you eating there?<br />
Ram’s horns? Did you get them from Nookra?”<br />
“We got them from that old woman there. What a dreadful creature she<br />
is,” Shereen broke in. “She has just shown us her mouth. The poor<br />
wretch has got no tongue.”<br />
The slave girl looked Shereen up and down. Gul Begum she knew<br />
about, but who was this talkative piece of goods who spoke aloud in<br />
the daytime of matters that should not even be whispered at midnight?<br />
“You had better look to your ways, and try to keep your own tongue a<br />
little more in control,” she said, “or you, too, may find yourself in like<br />
condition some day. You are too forward. Ferad Shah knows how to<br />
deal with women who have too much to say. He’ll have no busybodies<br />
here.”<br />
Shereen reddened, then turned pale, and moved nearer her cousin as<br />
though seeking protection.<br />
“Oh, you need not be afraid,” the girl said, noting the gesture. “I am<br />
only warning you. Keep your eyes down, and your ears closed, and<br />
your mouth shut in this house, and it will be so much the better for<br />
you. Come, you said you were hungr y. Would you like some bread and<br />
curd? There is some fresh just come in, and Bibi won’t be read y to<br />
wake yet this long time.”<br />
“Is she ill?” asked Shereen.<br />
The girl looked at her again, a contemptuous curl on her lip.<br />
“Oh, I can prophesy your fate at a glance, and what’s more, you won’t<br />
have long to wait for it to come to you. You want to know too much in<br />
too short a time, and you can’t take a hint when it’s given you. You’ll
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