1 a vizier's daughter - Hazara.net

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A VIZIER’S DAUGHTER – A TALE OF THE HAZARA WAR
During her illness, the services which, when she had been well, it had
been her special privileges as well as duty, according to Eastern
notions, to perform, seemed somehow to fall naturally upon Gul
Begum. Who else, indeed, was there to perform them? The children’s
nurse (there were two other tiny children besides the little stranger)
was more than taken up with her mistress and her little charges. The
lad y’s usual attendant was also in hourly requisitio n, either to take the
new bab y or to massage and soothe her suffering mistress. Little
delicacies and nourishing dishes were co nstantly required to tempt the
failing appetite, to strengthen the poor, failing patient, so even the
cook’s hands were more than full, according to a Kabul servant’s way
of thinking. Thus all the ordinar y household work fell on the slaves,
who did ever ything in an uncomplaining, listless, unmethodical wa y, as
untrained servants without a mistress are sure to do, and the master, for
whom the y were not as a rule allowed to do anything, never entered
their minds.
The cook cooked his food – of course she had alwa ys done so – but she
had now no time to bake the bread, her services were not constantly
required for other things, so the bread has to be fetched from the
bazaar. The bazaar bread was heavy, and, moreover, the flour was not
pure. The Chief Secretar y did not complain, but he did not eat it. So
Gul Begum baked the bread. She did it well, but her master made no
comment. The bread the day before had been uneatable, to -day it was
good – excellent. When he had finished his meat and vegetables, he
sent for some sour curd. He only did this when the bread was fresh and
light, and the slave who had made it, and who waited on him as he ate,
knew this and felt rewarded. At home her father would have prayed
her, or if much preoccupied, would at least have patted her on the head.
Here the master never even asked who had made it: some slave, that
was all she was now to the master of the house. What had she to do
with recognitio n? If things were bad or put of order the slaves were to
blame. When things were good, the y were as the y ought to be. The
slaves had done their duty, that was all. She was one of many, and had
no separate identit y from the others.
The Chief Secretary was a most religious man according to the
ordinarily accepted standard, but with his religion there was combined
a good deal of superstition, which deprived him of much sleep and
much time that other men spent in leisure. He never omitted to say his
prayers five times a day – that much was the duty of ever y true
believer. To do less than that was to deprive the Almight y of His
rights, to prove the creature a defaulter in the service of the Creator.
But the Chief Secretary did more than that. Besides his compulsory
prayers, he generally, and always in times of trouble, rose at twelve
o’clock at night to sa y an optional prayer – a prayer that was not a
positive duty, but the repetition of which, so he believed, brought
certain special blessings and favours. It often brought about the
fulfilment of an earthly desire, or if that were denied, it at least