The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1869-11-24

scA9l Life in India.

To comprehend domestic life among the
Hindoos, let us take look at one of their
homes. The family is patriachal. The
father is the head; his sons bring their wives
home one after another, the women occupy
ing apartments by themselves. The Hindoo
word for woman'S apartment is ''zenanna.
The women of the household mingle freely
together, but John never sees the wife of his
brother Joseph. Six or eight families, and
three or four generations are sometimes seen
under one roof, and when the house becomes
thus populous, the head of the family has
quite as much as he can attend to in settling
family troubles.
Think of the life of those women. They
are wholly ignorant; they know not letter
of their language. Why should woman
learn to read? What would come of it?
If they 60 to visit neighbor, it must be in
close palanquin-their faces yelled. They
know nothing except family gossip. They
cannot do the plainest sewing. The little
towhead on the lowest bench of an infant
school in America, making patchwork, can
use the needle more deity than most of the
millionaire Baboos.
Think of your little rosy checked darling,
who climbs upon your knee for her good
night kiss, being afianced in marriage at
the age of five years, shut up for the rest of
her days with nothing to do-no knitting
work, no bed quilts to make, no knowledge
of needle work; surrounded with books, yet
not knowing letter; her room blank wall;
her daily duties for the remainder of her
life being the performance of her daily paojsa
"a worship of little brass or stone image
in the form of monkey, or figure with
six arms and four faces; hanging flowers
around its neck, sprinkling it with water,
bowling before it, walking it, talking to it as
little girls do to their dolls, lighting little
wax tapers; nothing but this, except to
dawdle her children, bring food to her hus
band, and eat her own, and rearrange the
folds of cloth which answers for garment;
doing this, a,a sleeping the rest of her time,
from morning till night, through the twenty
four hours, the weeks, the months, the years,
from childhood to old age.
Such is the daily, unvarying life of the
Hindoo women of the upper classes. The
Baboos, who read Shakespeare, who know
what is going on in America, even to the
rappings of the spirits, who will discuss the
theisms of Theodore Parker with you, are
beginning to feel that there is an awkward
gap in their system of life.
The Hindoo upper classes, who are too
intellectual to be grossly sensual Baboos,
repudate Brigham Young. They are not
polygamists; they are fond of their wives,
and treat them with respect, and love their
children, especially if they are sons. But
there is no Eve in their paradise. They
come home from their counting room when
the days work is done, read a play from
Shakespeare, or an article from BlackwOod,
or Longfellow's last poem, and then comes
the reflection that the wife, so far as this is
concerned, is an idiot.
Many of the Baboos are now anxious to
have their wives educated but the women,
knowing nothing of the sweets of knowledge,
manifest but little desire to obtain an educa-
ton. Yet they are DESTROYS of learning en-
broidery. Those who have undertaken to do
something toward raising the women of this
land from their degradation have seized upon
this, and are using it to great advantage
Carlton IN the Boston Journal.