Though somewhat bored by the prayers and piety of Mahmoud Shah, and greatly disgusted by his ferocity, Colville had not much otherwise to complain of during his detention in the fort; and preferred those times when he was left to himself, when the sirdir secluded himself in his zenana, or was absent at the many weighty and evidently important conferences which were being daily held in the palace of Yakoub Khan. 'It is not good that man should be alone,' we are told; so, as Mahmoud the pious had at least four wives in his zenana, he spent much of his precious time there. The food which he shared with his host was excellent--it could not be said at table, as it was spread on the floor; but, as knives, forks, and spoons are things unknown as yet under the shadow of the Hindoo Kush, it was rather repellant to our fastidious Guardsman to see Mahmoud rend asunder with his fingers a boiled chicken or daintily roasted hill _chuckore_ (or Greek partridge), to hand him a piece with his brown-hued digits, which ever and anon he put half-way down his throat. 'Eat, sahib,' he would say; 'remember the proverb--touch the stomach and you injure the vitals, but cherish it and you gain heart.' 'But my heart sinks when I think of the friends I have lost through vile treachery.' 'It was the will of God your people should perish in the Bala Hissar,' replied Mahmoud, quietly, as he filled his mouth with a handful of boiled rice and green chillies. 'What says the Koran? "When God willeth evil on a people there shall be none to avert it, neither shall they have any protector beside Him. It is He who causeth the lightning to appear unto you, to strike fear, to raise hope, and who formeth the pregnant clouds." Praise God for His bounty; eat and have no heavy thoughts. The Prophet has written every man's fatal hour upon his forehead. It is done at his birth. Yours had not come, on that day in the Bala Hissar.' Then Colville would think how strange and striking were his surroundings, and from the bearded face of the sirdir who squatted on a carpet opposite to him his eyes would wander round the _Dewan-i-Kas_ where they were eating the evening meal. A piece of raw cotton floating in oil that was held in an old ladle wedged into the bare stone wall cast its fitful and lurid glare on the dark faces, the gleaming eyes, the quaint costumes, and oriental weapons of the sirdir's men, who marvelled that he fed and housed an unbeliever, instead of cutting his throat and tossing his carcase to the jackals of the Beymaroo hills; an unbeliever, who shaved his chin and not his head; but Allah! how strange were the customs for the _Feringhee-logue_!