Flora Annie Steel

“ So I did what I do ever when life and death are at issue, when even the mighty skill of medicine has to stand on one side and do nothing.
"I took my stylus and I wrote all over that paper the attributes of the Most High—His mercy. His truth. His wisdom. His great loving-kindness. And then, Huzoor, I crushed it into the form of a bolus, I covered it with silver foil, and swallowed it as a pill.
"It hath done me much good. I am now free from anxiety. The decision of all things rests with the Most Mighty." ”

“ In this way he heard a good deal of what was going on both inside and outside the city, and as he was of the old school of the absolutely loyal, outspoken Mahommedan, who, while he holds our rule to be inferior to that of his own faith, emphatically believes it to be superior to all others, I used often to pause, in riding into or out of the city, for a chat with the old man, seldom without benefit to myself. ”

“ But I told the lad he mistook—God had ordained otherwise—for look you, Huzoor, we Mussalmans came from the north many long years before the sahib-logue came from the west. So I let him talk, having by God's mercy come to a decision."
"What is that, hakeem-jee?" I asked, curious to know what had influenced the old man.
He salaamed quite simply. "The Huzoor bade me think who could best do the work, so I decided to vote for him. He is noble, and he knows what has to be done. He knows santation and hinspukshon-conservancy. ”