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Article HASSAN AND ZOOLMA; ← Page 15 of 18 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Hassan And Zoolma;
some knowledge to direct his search ; and there as you know he first set eyes on me . My resemblance to my mother first attracted his ; attention , and he heard too , that 1 was no Khana Zadeh , born in my master ' s house , but a purchased slave . The amulet which he snatched from my arm , and which as you know , I had there when I was first received into your house , had been written by our family Moollah , and this at once convinced him of my personal identity . His name as a leader of dacoitswas well known to Shunker and Seebunand other
, , notorious characters in the neighbourhood ; and he easily collected a band of ruffians , many of whom had previously consorted with him , who assisted him in the attack on your tents . After this the band separated to their own respective homes ; no property had been taken for which search might be made , and suspicion alighted on no one . My father placed me in a boat and conveyed me safely to his own home at Coel .
" Here I remained about three years , living in ease and comfort , and with little to complain of save separation from all those I held dear to me . It was nevertheless painful to one who had been , as was the case with me , brought up in peace and honesty , to know that I was the daughter of one who lived by setting at defiance the laws of his country . Plunder was , 1 knew , his profession , and blood , I fear , not unfrequently stained his hands . I daily trembled for his fate , and
knew not how long I should remain in the home which then held me . My anticipations were soon realised . One day the police-officers came with a search-warrant , and also an order to apprehend my father , then luckily not at home . He was subsequently proclaimed as an outlaw
and a heavy reward offered for his capture . For some weeks I was reduced to the greatest distress , and obliged to gain my bread by grinding corn and working at my spinning wheel , which scarcely furnished me with a meal of the very , coarsest grain . But what was I to do ? The police had plundered the house of every thing which was valuable , and no one dared to hold any but a distant communication with the daughter of a proclaimed dacoit . I was at length released from my troubles by the arrival of a messenger sent by my father to
search for me , he brought me to the old fort at Delhi , where you put up . Here , however , I found that a change had come over my father , and he had adopted a new trade . The fact was , that his name had at length become too notorious , and he dared no longer , with any regard to his own safety , continue his open outrages . I fear me much , if choice can exist between cases of such enormity , if his last profession is not worse than the former . He let his hair , beard , and whiskers grow
so as to prevent recognition , and had joined a body of Thugs in which he had been initiated . Oh ! my friend , what shall I say of the horrors which it has been my lot to hear and see . At Coel , when my father lived by dacoity , bis enormities were done at a distance ; there , though I heard , much of what was being done , my eyes were not witnesses of the harrowing scenes which at Delhi continually met my view . The horrid trade of deliberate strangling which my father had undertaken
, and the seeing , as was often the case , the victims writhing and struggling under die fatal noose , made me take an inveterate dislike to a person , who though he was my father , I had never been brought up to consider so , and who besides having no tie of youthful recollection or paternal cares , was daily guilty of crimes the most diabolical . It was not always that inv father personally superintended the receptacle
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Hassan And Zoolma;
some knowledge to direct his search ; and there as you know he first set eyes on me . My resemblance to my mother first attracted his ; attention , and he heard too , that 1 was no Khana Zadeh , born in my master ' s house , but a purchased slave . The amulet which he snatched from my arm , and which as you know , I had there when I was first received into your house , had been written by our family Moollah , and this at once convinced him of my personal identity . His name as a leader of dacoitswas well known to Shunker and Seebunand other
, , notorious characters in the neighbourhood ; and he easily collected a band of ruffians , many of whom had previously consorted with him , who assisted him in the attack on your tents . After this the band separated to their own respective homes ; no property had been taken for which search might be made , and suspicion alighted on no one . My father placed me in a boat and conveyed me safely to his own home at Coel .
" Here I remained about three years , living in ease and comfort , and with little to complain of save separation from all those I held dear to me . It was nevertheless painful to one who had been , as was the case with me , brought up in peace and honesty , to know that I was the daughter of one who lived by setting at defiance the laws of his country . Plunder was , 1 knew , his profession , and blood , I fear , not unfrequently stained his hands . I daily trembled for his fate , and
knew not how long I should remain in the home which then held me . My anticipations were soon realised . One day the police-officers came with a search-warrant , and also an order to apprehend my father , then luckily not at home . He was subsequently proclaimed as an outlaw
and a heavy reward offered for his capture . For some weeks I was reduced to the greatest distress , and obliged to gain my bread by grinding corn and working at my spinning wheel , which scarcely furnished me with a meal of the very , coarsest grain . But what was I to do ? The police had plundered the house of every thing which was valuable , and no one dared to hold any but a distant communication with the daughter of a proclaimed dacoit . I was at length released from my troubles by the arrival of a messenger sent by my father to
search for me , he brought me to the old fort at Delhi , where you put up . Here , however , I found that a change had come over my father , and he had adopted a new trade . The fact was , that his name had at length become too notorious , and he dared no longer , with any regard to his own safety , continue his open outrages . I fear me much , if choice can exist between cases of such enormity , if his last profession is not worse than the former . He let his hair , beard , and whiskers grow
so as to prevent recognition , and had joined a body of Thugs in which he had been initiated . Oh ! my friend , what shall I say of the horrors which it has been my lot to hear and see . At Coel , when my father lived by dacoity , bis enormities were done at a distance ; there , though I heard , much of what was being done , my eyes were not witnesses of the harrowing scenes which at Delhi continually met my view . The horrid trade of deliberate strangling which my father had undertaken
, and the seeing , as was often the case , the victims writhing and struggling under die fatal noose , made me take an inveterate dislike to a person , who though he was my father , I had never been brought up to consider so , and who besides having no tie of youthful recollection or paternal cares , was daily guilty of crimes the most diabolical . It was not always that inv father personally superintended the receptacle