The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1883-08-25

On the Gay OF ner wedding she Is
put into palanquin, shut up tight and
carried to her husbands house. says
Lrshf'S Sunday Magazine. Hitherto
she has been the spoiled pet of her
mother; now she is to be the little
slave of her mother-in-law, on whom
she is to wait, whose command 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. II this mother-in-law is
kind she will let the girl go home
occasionally to visit her mother.
OF 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 between them, and no matter how
cruelty she may be treated she can
never complain to her husband Of any
thing his mother may do, for he would
never take his wife's part. Her hus.
band sends to her daily the portion of
food that is TO be cooked for her, him.
self and children. When it is prepared
she places it on brass platter and
sends i, to her husbands room. He
eats what he wishes, and then the plat
ter is sent back with what is left for
her and her children. They sit to-
gether on the ground and eat the re.
mainder, having neither knives, forks
nor spoons. While she is young she is
never allowed to go anywhere.
The little girls are married rs young
rs , years Of age, and should the boy
to whom she is married die the next
day she is called a widow, and is from
henceforth doomed to perpetual Wild
owhood-she can never marry again.
As widow she must never wear any
jewelry, never dress her hair, never
sleep on a bed-no,hing but piece OF
mating spread on the hard brick floor,
and sometimes, in fact, not even tha,
between her and the cold bricks; and,
no matter how cold the night 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 day, and that of the coarsest
kind (; and once in two weeks she
must fast twenty.four hours. Then not
bit Of food, not drop OF water or
medicine must pass her lips-not even
il she were dying. She must never sit
down nor speak in the presence Of her
mother-in-law, unless she commands
her to do so.
Her food must be cooked and eaten
apart from other women's. She is a
disgraced, 4 degraded woman. She
may never even look on at any OF the
marriage ceremonies or festivals. II
would be an evil omen for her to do so.
She may have been high-caste Brah.
mimic woman; but on her becoming n
widow any, even the lowest servant,
may order her to do what they do no,
like to do. No woman in the house
must ever speak one word of love or pity
TO her, for it is supposed that il woman
shows the slightest COMMUNICATION TO a
widow she will Immediately become
one herself.
II estimated that there are So, 200
widows in India under I6 years of age.
The prevalence Of suicide among young
females is so great that il was brought
to the attention Of the Courts. This
can be traced to the oppressive control
exercised by the mother-in-law in house
hold matters over the daughter-in-law,
independently Of and unchecked by
the interference Of the husband. The
son is expected to take the part Of the
mother against the wife.