As for any marriage proposed [for me?] when I return, those things can
wait till I return. It is no gain to take into the house a child or a
sickly one who, through no fault of her own, dies in bringing forth. If
there be any talk between our house and any other family upon this
subject they should understand that I desire knowledge more than dowry.
There are schools where girls are educated by English ladies. I am not
of the sort to make a wedding outside my clan or country, but if I
fight to keep Mama Lumra out of the Punjab I will choose my wives out
of the Punjab. I desire nothing that is contrary to the Faith, Mother,
but what was ample yesterday does not cover even the palm of the hand
to-day. This is owing to the spread of enlightenment among all men
coming and going and observing matters which they had never before
known to exist.
In this country when one of them dies, the tomb is marked and named and
kept like a garden so that the others may go to mourn over her. Nor do
they believe a burial-ground to be inhabited by evil spirits or ghouls.
When I was upon a certain duty last month, I lay three nights in a
grave-yard. None troubled me, even though the dead had been removed
from their graves by the violence of shells bursting. One was a woman
of this country, newly dead, whom we reburied for the sake of the Pity
of Allah, and made the prayer. Tell the Pir Murshid this, and that I
performed _Tayamummum_ [the shorter purification with sand or dust]
afterwards. There was no time for the full purification.
Oh, my Mother, my Mother, I am your son, your son; and as I have said
at the beginning I will return to your arms from out of this country,
when God shall permit!
THE END
THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS
GARDEN CITY, N.Y.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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