1 a vizier's daughter - Hazara.net

186
A VIZIER’S DAUGHTER – A TALE OF THE HAZARA WAR
and she had no reasonable hope of ever getting her freedom, and so
being able to wear them elsewhere; but common sense and power of
reasoning formed no part of Gulsum’s character, or of that of most
Afghan slaves; she only felt she would like to have pearl earrings.
The consequences to others of her efforts to get them, the trouble she
would herself get into if it were ever discovered that she had bribed the
porter to let her slip out just for a minute to see a friend in the next
house, and had instead spoken with a man for ten minutes, in the lane
round the corner, had never crossed her mind. Hers was a limited
horizon, nor had she reckoned that her companion, during her four
years of slavery, had learnt something of harem intrigue too, and was
prepared to meet her on her own ground.
“Have you heard that Agha’s sais (groom), has been put in prison by
the Ameer’s orders?” Gulsum asked one day, after co nsidering how
much of her information in would be prudent for her to divulge in order
to gain more.
“Khuda - a - a!” exclaimed Gul Begum, in well-affected surprise,
having heard all about it from her master, “and what is that for?”
“I tell you Agha is in serious trouble. His enemies are pressing round
him. So, to get some information as to their movements, he sent Abdul
Raoof to see how the land lay, and gather what information he could
from the servants at the police office. They, however, were too smart
for him, and reported his being there, spying into their affairs, to the
Ameer. The Ameer sent for Abdul Raoof, who swore he had not been at
the office five minutes, and had asked no questio ns. Of course, fift y
witnesses were produced, who all swore to his having been there for
hours, and of all he said and did there. Have you heard nothing about
it? I should have thought Agha would have told you all about it.”
“There is where you make such mistakes, Gulsum,” the elder girl had
remarked quietly. “I tell you I only seem to you to hold a position of
confidence. I know nothing, how should I? Where do you get your
information? I should like to know those things too. The y may effect
my chances of a change as well as yours.”
Sardaro and her companions were surprised at the sudden intimac y that
had sprung up between the proud Hazara girl, who hardly held the
position of slave in the household, and the untidy little drudge whose
chief work consisted in cleaning the kitchen utensils, and looking after
the hens, and at the amount of gossip she now brought into the harem.
“Gul Begum is teaching me to write,” she had said to Sardaro when she
had been questioned on the subject. “Agha says ever y woman ought to
be able to write, and I am going to marry some day – a Mirza (writer),
perhaps, so I want to be able to write.”