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Article HASSAN AND ZOOLMA; ← Page 5 of 18 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Hassan And Zoolma;
mained immovable . To say truth , a spell had been cast over him , and an eye had fallen upon him ; whether it was an evil one or no , we will not say ; but that it was both bright and lustrous , we will aver , and also that neither Hassan ' s father , the moollah ' s , nor the peers , knew whose it was . Some years ago , and at the period to which these occurrences refer , the practice of the sale and purchase of children was more openly
carried on than the vigilance of the British authorities now permit it to be . Still , nevertheless , such things do now occur , though the persons concerned in such transactions , if discovered , meet with severe punishment . The subject is one difficult of treatment , since in some cases , more especially in times of severe famine , which periodically visit certain parts of India , a prohibition to part with their children , their only property , entail death on both child and parent ; while , on the other
hand , both live , and the child is well taken care of ; since after all such servitude in India is of the lightest and easiest kind . These points are not capable of being canvassed in a brief space ; and were it otherwise , this is not the place for such a discussion . By far the greatest objection to the tacit allowance , which was once permitted to such proceedings , and which still characterises those crimes which are occasionally brought before the public tribunalsis the inducement which it holds out to
, steal the children from the parents , and dispose of them clandestinely in distant parts of the country . It so happened , that when Hassan was about two years old , a rascally fakeer of the Kulundur sect , made his appearance with his conical cap , and with strings of beads and coral round his neck ; in his right hand he bore a crooked bamboo root , which
art or nature had twisted to a most curious shape , while in the other arm he carried a pretty babe , whose smiling cheeks and lustrous eyes seemed to win all hearts . The complexion and whole appearance of the infant shewed her to be no child of the lower class , and respectability was written in her face . The fakeer professed the child to be his own ; but the grin on his hideous countenance as he made the assertion , belied his speech even more than the manifest incongruity of their respective exteriors . He alleged that he sold the child because he was poor ;
but his shining oily face , and well filled paunch , shewed him to be an utter stranger to abstinence or self-denial of any kind . Azim did not ask many questions . He was then desirous to conciliate the exasperated disposition of his first wife , aud thought that such a pretty present , who might hereafter grow up to be an useful attendant , would be a good propitiation . Had his conscience been more sensitive as to the means by which the fakeer had acquired the girl , he might easily have assuaged
its compunction by the thought , that had he not bought her , some one else would have done so , and she might have fallen into worse hands . 'I'llus it was , that the little Zoolma , as she was named , became an inmate in the house of Shaik Azim . Zoolma ' s early promise of beauty was fulfilled , and she grew up full of loveliness and intelligence . The constant intercourse which existed between the pretty slave girl and the heir of Azim ' s fortunescould not fail to produce on the latter the effect
, which his father had seen , but the cause of which he could not divine . Some might think it strange that he did not penetrate beneath the surface , and see the reality of tilings ; but we have before said , that be was proud and puffed up with a notion of his own consequence . The supposition that his son , the son of a Koreshee Shaik , should think of an alliance with a slave girl , never entered his head ; as for Hassan ' s
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Hassan And Zoolma;
mained immovable . To say truth , a spell had been cast over him , and an eye had fallen upon him ; whether it was an evil one or no , we will not say ; but that it was both bright and lustrous , we will aver , and also that neither Hassan ' s father , the moollah ' s , nor the peers , knew whose it was . Some years ago , and at the period to which these occurrences refer , the practice of the sale and purchase of children was more openly
carried on than the vigilance of the British authorities now permit it to be . Still , nevertheless , such things do now occur , though the persons concerned in such transactions , if discovered , meet with severe punishment . The subject is one difficult of treatment , since in some cases , more especially in times of severe famine , which periodically visit certain parts of India , a prohibition to part with their children , their only property , entail death on both child and parent ; while , on the other
hand , both live , and the child is well taken care of ; since after all such servitude in India is of the lightest and easiest kind . These points are not capable of being canvassed in a brief space ; and were it otherwise , this is not the place for such a discussion . By far the greatest objection to the tacit allowance , which was once permitted to such proceedings , and which still characterises those crimes which are occasionally brought before the public tribunalsis the inducement which it holds out to
, steal the children from the parents , and dispose of them clandestinely in distant parts of the country . It so happened , that when Hassan was about two years old , a rascally fakeer of the Kulundur sect , made his appearance with his conical cap , and with strings of beads and coral round his neck ; in his right hand he bore a crooked bamboo root , which
art or nature had twisted to a most curious shape , while in the other arm he carried a pretty babe , whose smiling cheeks and lustrous eyes seemed to win all hearts . The complexion and whole appearance of the infant shewed her to be no child of the lower class , and respectability was written in her face . The fakeer professed the child to be his own ; but the grin on his hideous countenance as he made the assertion , belied his speech even more than the manifest incongruity of their respective exteriors . He alleged that he sold the child because he was poor ;
but his shining oily face , and well filled paunch , shewed him to be an utter stranger to abstinence or self-denial of any kind . Azim did not ask many questions . He was then desirous to conciliate the exasperated disposition of his first wife , aud thought that such a pretty present , who might hereafter grow up to be an useful attendant , would be a good propitiation . Had his conscience been more sensitive as to the means by which the fakeer had acquired the girl , he might easily have assuaged
its compunction by the thought , that had he not bought her , some one else would have done so , and she might have fallen into worse hands . 'I'llus it was , that the little Zoolma , as she was named , became an inmate in the house of Shaik Azim . Zoolma ' s early promise of beauty was fulfilled , and she grew up full of loveliness and intelligence . The constant intercourse which existed between the pretty slave girl and the heir of Azim ' s fortunescould not fail to produce on the latter the effect
, which his father had seen , but the cause of which he could not divine . Some might think it strange that he did not penetrate beneath the surface , and see the reality of tilings ; but we have before said , that be was proud and puffed up with a notion of his own consequence . The supposition that his son , the son of a Koreshee Shaik , should think of an alliance with a slave girl , never entered his head ; as for Hassan ' s