Dolaree had given birth to a boy, who
was named Mahommed Allee; and she now gave birth to a daughter; but
she had cohabited with a blacksmith and an elephant-driver in the
neighbourhood, and it became a much "vexed question" whether the son
and daughter resembled most Roostum, the blacksmith, or the elephant-
driver; all, however, were agreed upon the point of Dolaree's
backslidings. Mahommed Allee, _alias_ Kywan Ja, was three years of
age, and the daughter, _Zeenut-on Nissa_, one year and half, when
some belted attendants from the palace came to Roostumnugger in
search of a wet-nurse for the young prince, Moona Jan, who had been
born the night before; and Bebee Mulatee, whose reputation for
learning had readied the royal family, sent off Dolaree as one of the
candidates for employment. Her appearance pleased the queen, the
Padshah Begum, the quality of her milk was pronounced by the royal
physicians to be first rate, and she was chosen, as wet-nurse for the
new-born prince.
Moona Jan's father (then heir-apparent to the throne of Oude) no
sooner saw Dolaree than, to the astonishment of the Queen and her
Court, he fell desperately in love with her, though she seemed very
plain and very vulgar to all other eyes; and he could neither repose
himself, nor permit anybody else in the palace to repose, till he
obtained the King's and Queen's consent to his making her his wife,
which he did in 1826.
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