They are in great request among the highest order of people, and from their long sojourn in a family, this class of beings are generally faithfully attached to the interest and welfare of their employer; they are much in the confidence of their master and mistress, and very seldom betray their trust.  Being frequently purchased, whilst children, from the base wretches who have stolen them in infancy from the parental roof, they often grow up to a good old age with the family by whom they are adopted; they enjoy many privileges denied to other classes of slaves;—­are admitted at all hours and seasons to the zeenahnahs; and often, by the liberality of their patrons, become rich and honourable;—­still ’he is but a slave’, and when he dies, his property reverts to his owner.

In Oude there have been many instances of Eunuchs arriving to great honour, distinctions, and vast possessions.  Al Mauss Ali Khaun[11] was of the number, within the recollection of many who survive him; he was the favoured Eunuch of the House of Oude; a person of great attainments, and gifted with a remarkably superior mind, he was appointed Collector over an immense tract of country, by the then reigning Nuwaub, whose councils he benefited by his great judgment.  He lived to a good old age, in the unlimited confidence of his prince, and enjoyed the good will and affection of all who could appreciate what is valuable in honest integrity.  He died as he had lived, in the most perfect resignation to whatever was the will of God, in whose mercy he trusted through time, and for eternity.  Many of the old inhabitants speak of him with veneration and respect, declaring he was the perfect pattern for good Mussulmauns to imitate.

Another remarkable Eunuch, Affrine Khaun,[12] of the Court of Oude, is well remembered in the present generation also,—­the poor having lost a kind benefactor, and the rich a sensible companion, by his death.  His vast property he had willed to others than the sovereign ruler of Oude (whose property he actually was), who sent, as is usual in these cases, to take possession of his estate, immediately after his death; the gates were barred, and the heirs the Eunuch had chosen to his immense wealth had taken possession; which I am not aware was disputed afterwards by the reigning Nuwaub, although by right of the Mussulmaun law, the Nuwaub owned both the slave and the slave’s wealth.

This accounts, perhaps, for the common practice in the higher circles of the Mussulmaun population, of heaping ornaments and riches on favourite slaves; the wealth thus expended at one time, is but a loan in the hands of safe keepers, to revert again to the original proprietor whenever required by the master, or no longer of service to the slave, who has neither power to bestow, nor heirs to benefit from the property he may leave when he dies.