Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-05-19
GIRL L1gs III INDIA.

Ga the day of her wedding she is PIT into
palanquin, shut up tight, and carried TO
her husbands house. 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
commands she is implicitly Co 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-iu.law is kind she will let the girl
90 home occasionally to visit her mother.
OF her husband she sees little or moth
ing. She is Of no more account to him than
q little cat or dog would be. There is sell
dom, or never, any love between them, and
no matter how cruelty she may be treated,
she can never complain to her husband of
anything 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 it is prepared she places
it on large brass platter, and sends it to
her husbands room. he eats what he
wishes, and then the platter is sent back,
with what is left, for her and her children.
They sit together on the ground and eat
the remainder, having neither knives,
forks nor spoons. While she is young she
is never allowed to go anywhere.
The little girls are married as young as
3 years of age, and should the boy 20
whom such child is married die the next
day, she is called widow, and is from
henceforth. doomed to perpetual widow
hood-she can never marry again. As q
widow she must never wear any jeweiry,
never dress her hair, never sleep on g
bed, nothing but piece of mating spread
on the hard brick hoor-and sometimes, in
fact, not even that between her aud the
cold brick and, no matter how cold TIE
night may be, she must have no other COW
ering 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 TWEEN.
ty.four hours. Then not a bit of food, not
drop of water OF medicine must pass her
lips-not even if she were dying. She
must never ait down or speak in the pres
ence of hsr mother in-iaw, unless they
command her to do 50.
Her food mnas be cooked and eaten
apart from the other woman's. Sha is a
disgraced, a degraded woman. She rnay
never even look on az any of the marriage
ceremonies or festivals. Il would be an
evil omen for her 90 do so. She may have
been high caste Brahminic woman !; but
on her becoming a WIDOW, any, even the
lowest servant, may order her to do what
they do not like to DO. No woman in the
house must ever speak one word of love or
pity to her, for it is supposed that if a
woman shows the slightest commiseration
to widow, she will Immediately become
one herself
Il is estimated that there are so, 900 wild
ows in India under sixteen years of age.
The prevalence OF suicide among young fe-
males is so great that it has been brought
to the attention of the Courts. This can
be traced to the oppressive control exer-
cised by the mother.in.law in household
matters over the daughter-in-law indie
pendently of and unchecked by the inter
ference of the husband. The son is ex-
pected to take the part of the mother
against the wife, Lsslie's Sunday Maya