ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 221 



that it was hardest in the Zenanas, for the opposition met 

 with there in every direction always came from the older 

 women — the grandmothers of young India — who are all- 

 powerful. To change their outlook was the object aimed 

 at ; to thwart this aim was theirs. Their ear once gained, 

 the rest was easy. 



Once, while staying at Secunderabad, a military canton- 

 ment of the Deccan, I with others paid a visit to the Zenana 

 of one of the great nobles at Hyderabad, three miles away. 

 The rooms were richly yet tawdrily furnished with many 

 useless lumbering pieces of furniture in magnificently carved 

 blackwood * which stood about pointlessly. The gilt- 

 framed mirrors were of common glass, distorting everything, 

 while the faces and forms of the women they should have 

 reflected faithfully were, some of them, truly lovely ; fair, 

 too, even to a European eye. We were told they were 

 Georgians and Circassians. 



It was very delightful to be able to gaze unrestrainedly 

 at so much beauty without being thought the least rude, 

 and, indeed,. they stared as frankly at us. While these ladies 

 treated us with perfect courtesy, they could not conceal 

 their intense curiosity, especially as to our clothes, though 

 their own were far more beautiful really, and probably 

 more costly, as well. They scrutinised and appraised all 

 we had on, and as some of them spoke quite good English it 

 was amusing, but embarrassing, when they picked out with 

 acumen the best shoes of one or the best hat of another, 

 even extending their remarks to our petticoats and stockings, 

 and asking us what price they were. Fashion-plates were 

 lying about, so they had a standard of comparison. 



We all received some gift — strings of pearls, turquoises, 

 etc. ; and we had taken little presents ourselves, such as 

 fancy boxes of bon-bons, but of those we saw plenty there 

 already. 



1 Dalbergia latifolia, an Indian tree, the rosewood of commerce. 



