trothed (Butler, p. 497). And yet what is the fate of the poor girl after she has actually found her mate? Marriage to the Hindu female means slaverj' in its most abject form. " The Hindu," says Massie (ii, 154), " does not marry to secure a companion who will aid him in enduring the ills of life, or in obtaining the means of ra- tional employment, he seeks only a slave who shall nourish (he thinks not of training) children, and abide in abject subjection to his rule."
Betrothal with the Hindus being as binding as mar- riage (indeed, the word " marriage" is used to include both betrothal and our conception of the matrimonial alliance), the female child enters into a new state of existence im- mediately after the ceremony of betrothal. "Henceforth she is no more free to roam the fields and enjoy the lovely face of nature. Eeserved f(i)r her husband, she can no longer be seen with propriety by any man save her father and brothers. She is from that day ^ & purdah-nashiu^ — one who sits behind the curtains within the inclosure which surrounds her mother's home ;" and now com- mences her education, which, lasting for five or six years, may be epitomized in its entire curriculum under these four heads : cooking, domestic service, religion, and their peculiar female literature, to enter at last a state of dependence more strict, contemptuous, and humiliating, ordained for the weaker sex among the Hindils, than which there cannot easily be conceived another. Look into the house which the bride has entered, and see her as she begins the duties for which she has been trained. She rises to prepare her husband's food, and, when all is ready and laid out upon the mat — for the^' ignore such aids as chairs and tables, knives or forks, and take their meals with the hand, sitting on the floor — she now announces to her lord that his meal is ready. He en- ters and sits down, and finds all dulv prepared by her care. Why does she still stand? Why not sit down too, and share with her husband the good things which she has made ready. She dares not. He would not al- low it — the law of her religion forbids it. She must stand and wait upon him, for do not the Shasters render it her duty ? " Wlien in the presence of her husband," they teach her, " a woman must keep her eyes upon her master, and be ready to receive his commands. When he speaks she must be quiet, and listen to nothing else, and attend upon him alone. A woman has no other god on earth but her husband." Therefore she waits upon her husband so patiently. But not only is she prohibited from enjoying the blessings of the family ta- ble, even when her lord has fuUy satisfied himself, but she is obliged to remove what remains to another apart- ment— "for her religion not only forbids her eating with him, but also prohibits her from eating even what he leaves ' in the same room where he dines' — and not till then can she and her children eat their food" (Butler, p. 492). If the state we have portrayed be sad and low enough, what shall be said of the helpless condition in which the poor woman of India is placed if her husband be cruel, aye, brutal ? " Woman," says Butler (p. 492), " is absolutely without redress, in the power of her hus- band, and no one can interfere when it stops short of act- ual murder." Such is woman's history in a married life, as guided and controlled by the sacred writings of a people who enjoy a non-Biblical civilization. " If ever woman had an opportunity of showing what she might become under the teachings and influence of a civiliza- tion where Christianity or the Bible did not interfere with her state, the women of India have had that op- portunity, and now, after forty centuries of such exper- iment, what is woman there to-day?" (Butler, p. 4G9). Surely here is a question worthy the attention of those "fact gatherers" who so eagerly thrust aside the be- nighted influences of a Christian civilization.
Polyfjamy exists among the Hindus, as it is allow- able. It is a luxurj', however, that few poor men can afford, and hence the practice of " successional polyga- my:" HindCls often forsake their wives, and then take others. Where polygamy has invaded the household,
MARRIiVGE
802
MARRIAGE
the woman who has had the good fortune to be the first wife takes precedence in rank ; she remaining the mis- tress of the zenana — the Hindu harem.
Polyandry, strangely enough, has also established it- self here. " This singular and amazing relation existed in India twenty-five centuries ago, and lingers to-day in some localities to such an extent as to call for the legislative action of the English government." See Polyandry.
The marriage-rites are numerous, tedious, and in many parts far from deUcate. All, however, being expressed in Sanscrit, and recited by the officiating Brahmin with the utmost rapidity, no one understands what is said. The principal rites among the Brahmins are walking three times round a fire, and tj'ing the garments of the parties together. The bride has also to make seven steps, at the last of which the marriage is complete.