Perhaps the most successful barber known to Indian history was not
a Hindu at all, but a Peninsular and Oriental Company's cabin-boy,
who became the barber of one of the last kings of Oudh, Nasir-ud-Din,
in the early part of the nineteenth century, and rose to the position
of a favourite courtier. He was entrusted with the supply of every
European article used at court, and by degrees became a regular guest
at the royal table, and sat down to take dinner with the king as a
matter of right; nor would his majesty taste a bottle of wine opened
by any other hands than the barber's. [297] This was, however, a wise
precaution as it turned out, since after he had finally been forced to
part with the barber the king was poisoned by his own relatives. The
barber was also made keeper of the royal menagerie, for which he
supplied the animals and their food, and made enormous profits. The
following is an account of the presentation of the barber's monthly
bill of expenses: [298] "It was after tiffin, or lunch, when we usually
retired from the palace until dinner-time at nine o'clock, that the
favourite entered with a roll of paper in his hand. In India, long
documents, legal and commercial, are usually written, not in books
or on successive sheets, but on a long roll, strip being joined to
strip for that purpose, and the whole rolled up like a map.
"'Ha, Khan!' said the king, observing him; 'the monthly bill, is it?'
"'It is, your majesty,' was the smiling reply.
"'Come, out with it; let us see the extent. Unroll it, Khan.'
"The king was in a playful humour; and the barber was always in
the same mood as the king. He held the end of the roll in his hand,
and threw the rest along the floor, allowing it to unroll itself as
it retreated. It reached to the other side of the long apartment--a
goodly array of items and figures, closely written too. The king
wanted it measured. A measure was brought and the bill was found
to be four yards and a half long. I glanced at the amount; it was
upwards of Rs. 90,000, or £9000!"
The barber, however, encouraged the king in every form of dissipation
and excess, until the state of the Oudh court became such a scandal
that the king was forced by the British Government to dismiss
him. [299] He retired, it was said, with a fortune of £240,000.