'Through Persia on a side-saddle' [‎123] (154/360)

FOUR VISITORS AND A MAID
123,
taken the title-deeds of these properties and had sold
them. In Persia, however, it is considered a sin to usurp
land in this way, so little by little the heir was enabled to
get back his lost papers, paying for them and conducting
the transactions with the utmost secrecy, until the happy
day arrived when his friends were able to intercede for
him with the Shah, and by means of their efforts he was
once more free to enjoy his own again.
As Marie, the Swiss maid I had brought out with
me, proved entirely unsuited to a life of travel, we
took the opportunity, early in May, of sending her to
Karachi under the escort of Sultan Sukru, who was
anxious to visit his relatives in India after his long
absence, and I engaged one of the despised Gabres, or
Fire-worshippers, to wait upon me in her place. Baji y
as I called her (a Turkish word meaning sister, and al
ways used by Europeans when addressing their maids)^
was a pretty little woman, and toddled about in baggy
white trousers, a gay chintz jacket, and a long white
cotton veil draping the back of her head and hanging
gracefully behind; while several checked cotton hand
kerchiefs were tied round her face. She kept herself and
my rooms spotlessly clean, and was most anxious to be
instructed in all the mysterious ways of the Feringhees;
but was very nervous at first, brushing my hair with little
trembling pats, and using the comb with a ferocious energy >
which forced me to remind her that she was not operating
on a mule. She informed me that throughout her life she
had ' eaten sorrow,' but when she mentioned that her late
husband had ill-treated her, and then demanded sympathy
from me on account of his death, I told her plainly that
her apparent desolation was a cause for rejoicing. Persians