The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-12-02
THE HINDU WIDOW.

of charitably disposed persons, and IN
whose woeful state there is more scope
for the display of philanthropic efforts,
than the widows among the Hindus, In
India. Very few people in Europe
have even the remotest idea of the
miseries and horrors which Hindu wo-
men undergo after the death Of their
husbands. The Hindus themselves do
not fully know the sufferings of their
widowed sisters and daughters; much
less do they care to alleviate the hard
ships of their bereaved countrywomen,
or to improve the general status of the
fema @ population of India. The cries of
the helpless creatures who are doomed
to lifelong widowhood hardly find an
echo beyond the four walls of the In
dian 2enana.
The evils of widowhood in India are
man fold, and the system of early mar
riage makes them tenfold intense.
Among the Hindus, boy who is hard
ly out of his teens is married to girl
who has barely passed twelve summers;
and it often happens that wife loses
her husband soon after her marriage,
and then she is initiated into the horrors
of a widows life ere she has passed her
very girlhood. Even If the would-be
husband, after the formal engagement
has been made, dies before the cere-
mony OF marriage, the girl is condemned
to widowhood for all her life.
A Hindu woman's period of temporal
happiness ceases, irrespective of her
rank or wealth, directly she becomes
widow. When young man dies his
parents and friends are in deep mourn
ing for him, expressing the greatest
grief for his untimely loss; but few
people understand or care to compre-
bend the utter wretchedness in which
he leaves his young wife, who is yet too
tender and inexperienced to bear with
even the commonest hardship of this
world. No sooner has the husband
breathed his last than the young wife
is made to give up all tokens of the
married state, and to forego all pleas
ures and Injuries as utterly unsuitable
for her present condition.
The formal period of mourning for
widow in Bengal lasts for one month.
During this time she has to prepare
her own food, combining herself to a
single meal day, which consists of
boiled coarse rice, simplest vegetables,
chi, or clarified butter, and milk. She
is forbidden to do her hair, and to put
any scent or oil on her body. She
must put on the same cotton sari day
and night, even when it is wet, and
must eschew the pleasure of q bed, and
lie down on the bare ground, or per-
haps on coarse blanket spread on it;
III some cases she cannot even have her
hair dried in the sun after daily morn
ing ablution, which she must go
through before she can put particle
of food in her mouth. The old women
say that the soul of man after his
death ascends to heaven quickly and
pleasantly in proportion to the bodily
infections which his wife can undergo
in the month after the death of her
husband. Consequently, the new made
widow, If not for any other reason, at
least for the benefit of the soul of her
departed husband, must submit TO con-
tinuous abstinence and eXcruciating
self-inhictions. The widow is, in fact,
looked upon as the "evil one" of the
house.
In the Northwest Provinces of India
widows suffer treatment far worse than
that to which their sisters in Bengal
are subjected.
A widow among the respectable
classes in this land of rigid hinduism
is considered and treated as something
worse than the meanest criminal in the
world. Directly after the death of her
husband she is stunned by her relations
and friends, and, as if her breath or
touch would spread among them the
contagion of her crime-the natural
death of her husband-they do not
even approach near her, but send the
BARRIERS wives. who play an important
part in all Hindu ceremonies. TO divest
her of all her ornaments and fneries.
These mercenary persons often proceed
to their task in most heart-rending
manner; but that Is the command of
their mistresses, and they must obey it.
No sooner has the husband breathed
his last than these hirelings rush at
their victim and snatch of her earrings
and nose-rings.
Ornaments plated into the hair are
torn away, and if the arms are covered
with gold and silver bracelets, they cso
not take the time to draw them off one
by one, but holding her arm on the
ground, Iney HanH6r Will StOue un-
til the metal, often solid and heavy,
bre ks in two; it matters not to them
how many wounds are inflicted, even
if the widow IS but child of six or
seven, who does not know what hus-
band means; they have no pity.
1T the funeral the relatives of the
deceased, male and female, accompany
the corpse, and all, rich or poor, must
go on foot, the women, with their wells
drawn over their faces, following, and
last comes the widow, preceded by the
BARRIERS wives, who take great care to
keep her at respectable distance from
the ma body of the mourners, shout
ing out as they go along to warn the
other people of the approach of the
detested widow. Soon after the party
reaches the river or tank, near which
tie cremation takes place, the widow is
pushed into the water, and there she
has to remain, in her wet clothes, away
from all the other people, until the
dead body has been burnt to ashes.
And when all of them have started for
home the widow is led along by the
BARRIERS wives, her clothes soaking
wet, and she mutely bearing the rude