Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/219

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placed there; you are very kind in trying to persuade me, my dear daughter, that I have still many years before me, but I feel I am going, my constitution is gone; it is well that with old age we feel all these pains and the ills that accompany it; were it not so, we should never be willing to quit this world." Our conversation lasted some time, afterwards he took my arm, and we returned slowly to the house. I visited his grave: his son had raised a tomb on the spot selected by his father; it was not quite finished. I knelt at the grave of my kind, kind friend, and wept and prayed in deep affliction. His Begam had only survived him a few days. She was buried in the same tomb, with her head to Mecca, towards which place the face of a true believer is always turned when laid in the grave. The corpse of a Muhammadan is laid on its back in the grave, with the head to the north and feet to the south, turning its face towards the kibla (or Mecca, i. e. west). The Shī'as make their tombs for men of the same shape as the Sunnīs make those for females; and for women like those of the Sunnīs for men, but with a hollow, or basin, in the centre of the upper part.

Mulka Begam received me very kindly; she showed me her little girl, the youngest, about two years old, whom she said was reckoned very like me. The child was shy, and clung to her ayha, frightened at a stranger; I could scarcely catch a glimpse of her face. The eldest boy was from home with his father; the second son, William Linnæus, so called after his grandfather, was at home; he is a very fine, intelligent boy. I requested leave to bring Mrs. H—— to pay her a visit that evening, and then asking permission to depart, I returned to the tents. In the evening, our party set off for Khāsgunge: we walked in the garden, and visited the tomb. Major Sutherland spoke of Colonel Gardner as a most gallant officer, and recorded several most dashing actions in which he had distinguished himself in many parts of the country; gallantry that had not met the recompense due to it from Government;—the value of a spirit such as Colonel Gardner's had not been properly appreciated by the rulers of the land.

When the evening closed in, the gentlemen went into the outer