Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-09-17
Girl Life In India.

Girl Life in India.
On the day of her marriage she is
put into D palanQuin, ehut up tight.
and carried to her husbands house.
Hitherto she had been the spoilt pet of
her mother; low she is to he the little
slave OF her mother-in.law, upon whom
shc is to wait, whose commands she is
implicitly TO obey, and who teaches her
what she is to do to please her husband;
what dishes he likes best and how to
cook them. If the mother in-law is
kind she will let tho girl go home oc-
casionally to visit her mother.
VI her husband she sees little or
nothing. She is OF NO more account to
HIM than little Cat or dog would be.
There is seldom or never any love be-
tween them, and no matter how cruelty
she may be treated, she can never COM
plain to her husband of any thing his
mother may do, for he would never take
his wife's part. Her husband sends to
her daily the portion Of food that is to
be cooked for her, himself and the
children. When il is prepared she
places it all on one large brass platter,
and it is sent into the husbands room.
he eats what he wishes, and then the
platter is sent back, with what is left.
tor her and the children. They sit TO.
gether on the ground and eat the re-.
msinder, having neither knives, forks
nor spoons. While she is young she
is never allowed to 60 any where. When
she becomes very old, il she makes q
VOW to go on pilgrimage to some
heatheH temple, she is permitted to 60
to offer sacrifice either for herself or
for others, but this is only occasionally
dene; very, very few ever undertake it.
She always has her Takoors, or house.
hold gods, On shelf in the house,
most frequently over her own bed, and
to them she pays her daily devotions,
Offering them rice and decorating them
with flowers; at length she draws near the
hour OF death, anu when it is thou ght
her end is just approaching, she is car
ried down to the banks OF the Ganges,
there to breathe her last in view of that
holy stream whose waters are supposed
to be e&cacious IN cleansing away sin.
AS soon as the spirit has departed the
remains are taken to the Burning CHAT
1.-THE place for burning the dead bodies)
and laid upon pile Of wood. In few
hours nothing remains but little heap
of ashes. TINS is then taken up anu
cast into the river Gsnges.
Such is the life and death OF the hap
piest, the most favored, amongst these
BeDgall women.
The little girls are married even as
young as three years of age, and shoald
the boy to whom such u child is mar
ried die the next day, she is called a
widow, and is from henceforth doomed
to perpetual widowhood; she can never
marry again. As widow she must
never wear any jewelry, never dress
her hair, never sleep Oh bed, nothing
but piece of mating spread ON the
hard brick floor, and sometimes, in
fact, not even that between her and the
cold bricks, and no matter how cold
the nights may be, she must have no
other covering than the thin garment
she has worn in the day
She must eat but one meal OF food a
day, aud that Of the coarsest kind. aud
once in two weeks she must fast for
twenty -four hours. Then not q bit OF
food, not drop of water or medicine
must pass her lips, not even if she were
dying. She must never sit down or
speak in the presence of her mother. in.
law or either OF has lsisters-in-l law, un.
less they command her to do so. Her
food must be cooked and catch spart
from other women's. She is q dis
graced, q degraded woman. She MY
never even look on at any OF tho mar,
riage ceremonies or festivals. 1t wonld
be an evil omen for her to do 80. She
may have been = high caste Brahminic
woman, but on her becoming . widow,
any, even the lowest servants. may or
der her to do what they do not like to
do. No woman in the house must eyer
speak one word Of love or pity to her,
for it is supposed that il q woman
shows the slightest COMMUNICATION to q
widow she will immediately become one
herself.
saw an account short time ago, in
an English paper, that they had besn
trying to take the census of the popu.
lation lately in India, and, a. far az
they had gone, they found that there
were "eighty thousand widows under
six years Of sgel" Can you imagine
the amount of suffering that little sem
tence tells of and foretells?
Some among the educated men OF In
dia are DESTROYS to break the chains
that still hold the women in slavery.
Others still desire to keep them down
in abject submission. A native gentle
man, a lawyer, only q short time ago
pleaded in the English court Of justice
in Calcutta. for the ''abject dependence
of women" quoting the Statutes Of
Menu" one OF the most ancient of tkeir
holy books. He said: Menu tells us
that in childhood female must be de-
pendent ON her father; in youth on her
husband; her lord being dead, on her
sons" He also stated that for female
to aspire to the exercise of her free will
would be something shocking to the
feelings OF the whole Hindoo communi-
ty! Menu also writes: Isl By girl or q
woman advanced in years, nothing
must be done, even in her own dwell
ng-place, according to her own pleas
ure." Menu classes her with the stu.
pid, the dumb. blind and the deaf.
She may be corrected by her lord, to
whom her mind, speech and body are
to be kept in subsection by means Of .