Observations on the Mussulmauns of India

account of jealousy, often says, "I wish I were married to a grass-cutter," i.e. because a grass-cutter is so poor that he can only afford to have one wife.'[9] Mrs. Parks from her own experience calls the zenana 'a place of intrigue, and those who live within four walls cannot pursue a straight path; how can it be otherwise, when so many conflicting passions are called forth?'[10] She adds that 'Musalmani ladies generally forget their learning when they grow up, or they neglect it. Everything that passes without the four walls is repeated to them by their spies; never was any place so full of intrigue, scandal, and chit-chat as a zenana.'[11] When she visited the Delhi palace she remarks: 'As for beauty, in a whole zenana there may be two or three handsome women, and all the rest remarkably ugly.'[12] European officers at the present day have no opportunities for acquiring a knowledge of the conditions of zenana life; but from the rumours that reach them they would probably accept the views of Mrs. Parks in