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114 A VIZIER’S DAUGHTER – A TALE OF THE HAZARA WAR The girl looked at her mother, a sad pit y for herself as well as for her swelling up in her heart. “Listen, mother,” she said, “I have already resolved to do all I can, but I cannot yet make up my mind what to do. It appears that Ferad Shah contemplates marr ying me. Can you devise any plan which would get me awa y from here before his return? I have been thinking and thinking, but can come to no decision likely to prove successful.” Halima, really alarmed for her own safet y, became more amiab le and more sensible than usual, and mother and <strong>daughter</strong> conferred for some time together. When the discussion was over, Gul Begum seemed less dejected. There was something to be done besides sitting and awaiting what she felt to be her doom, and the girl’s spirits rose at the very thought of release from this establishment of horrors. CHAPTER XXI A LADY’S TOILET FORTUNE seemed to favour Gul Begum next morning. Before ver y long the slave girl, to whom she had spoken on the day of her arrival, and who had given her the bread and sour curd the following morning, came upstairs and called her: “Bibi is just finishing her toilet after her hum hum (Turkish bath), and has sent for you. She wants to speak to you alone,” she said. Then in a lower tone she added, “Now is your time to get some clothes from her. You need them badly.” So the girl followed her guide with an almost trembling eagerness. It was not clothes she wanted, it was release, but how to get it?
115 A VIZIER’S DAUGHTER – A TALE OF THE HAZARA WAR They crossed the quadrangle, went up a few steps, and Gul Begum had to stoop to get into the apartment into which she was ushered, so low was the doorway. The floor was concreted, and felt ver y hot to her feet, and the air was laden with moisture. There was a rough, wooden door opposite that by which she had entered, and she could see beyond a smaller room too, from which a considerable amount of steam and heat was evidently coming. Gul Begum had never seen a Turkish bath before. She was puzzled, and not a little alarmed. The cr y, or whatever she had heard in the night, recurred to her, and she turned instinctively and looked at the door through which the slave girl was on the point of making her exit. “Kush amedi” (Welcome), the lady of the house said graciously. Gul Begum had hardly noticed her, she was so taken up with her other surroundings; but, on being thus recalled to a sense of what was due to her hostess or mistress, whichever she might prove to be, “You are well?” she returned, with an inclination of her head, remembering suddenly how much depended on this interview. “Remain in peace,” continued the lady. “You have not seen a hum hum before, I day say. Would you like to go and look round, before you come and speak to me?” “I would,” the girl said quietly, somewhat reassured. “This seems to me a strange place. It must be pleasant in cold weather.” So saying, she advanced towards the inner chamber. There was not much to see when she got there, only a very hot room, almost dark, and full of steam. There was a deep, dark hole in the wall. Gul Begum put her arm through, and came to the tank containing the hot water which the attendant bath women throw on their mistresses, as they lie flat on the ground on a deer or tiger skin put down for the purpose, going through the process of scrubbing, first with a thick sort of mud, then with a kind of soap, next with a rough glove which seems to take the very skin off, and finally with a cool white powder, called sufedi (whitening), very comforting after all the kneading and scouring that has gone on before, but not becoming, it makes one so ghastly white. When her eyes got accustomed to the light, she saw two brass taps below the opening in the wall. Wondering what the y were for, for she had never seen such a thing, she stooped and turned the cock, and immediately the water began to run. “What convenience!” the girl said to herself. “This is indeed a luxurious people. One turns one little handle and hot water comes, and another, and one has cold water. It is all very wonderful,” and rejoicing in the discover y of what had interested her, her cheeks hot from the
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