Wazir Mahommed. Akbar Kahn. Sirdar Ghula Haidar. The woman now filling the position of chief queen is the mother of Aman Ullah. She has recently given birth to a daughter. At a more normal season she strikes an interesting contrast with the daughter of Yusef Khan. She is a woman of ungovernable passions, wilful, domineering, and capricious--an odd mixture of the termagant and the shrew. She has killed with her own hands three of her slaves who had become _enceinte_ through their intercourse with the Amir, and she chastises personally her erring handmaidens, purposely disfiguring any whose physical attractiveness may appeal to their master. Her influence over the Amir, however, is limited. She sings and dances, but she lacks the subtle craft of the Bibi Halima and the gentle dignity of the Hindustani queen. The four wives of the Amir occupy positions which are graduated to a recognised scale. The first wife, the mother of Aman Ullah, draws an allowance of one lakh of rupees annually; the second wife, Ulia Jancah, the Hindustani queen, 80,000 rupees; the third wife, the daughter of Ibrahim, 20,000 rupees; and the fourth wife, mother of Inayat Ullah, 14,000 rupees a year. The first queen resides in the harem serai of the Shah Ara palace where the two principal concubines, the mothers of Hayat-Ullah Khan[38] and Kabir Jan[39] and respectively former Badakshi and Tokhi slave-girls, are housed. The inmates of the harem are busy people, occupying themselves in knitting, embroidery and other feminine pursuits. The chief wife has a sewing machine and with it makes clothes for her children. The Hindustani Queen, who is of royal birth, lives in great style. She is an ambitious woman and wears English dresses although it should be said that they are costumes in the fashion of thirty years ago. Each of the Amir’s married wives, as distinct from the concubines, has a separate house, where she lives with her children. [Illustration: HIS HIGHNESS HABIB ULLAH, AMIR OF AFGHANISTAN]