The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1886-10-22
E,INDOO WIDOWS.
The Truly Helpless Condition of These I'm

Inc Truly helpless CONDITION OF These Tn
fortunate Women.
The formal period of mourning for a
widow in Bengal lasts for one month
with the Kayasths, the most numerous
and influential class in that part of In
dia-the Brahmins keeping only ten
days. During this time she has to pre-
pare her own food, combining herself to
single meal a day. which consists of
boiled coarse rice, simplest vegetables,
clarified butter, and milk She can on
no account touch meat, fish, eggs, or
any delicacy at all; she is forbidden to
do up 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 a bed and lie down on
| bare ground, or perhaps on a coarse
blanket spread on it. In some cases
she can not even have her hair dried
in the sun after her daily morning
ablution, which she must 90 through
before she can put particle of food in
her mouth. The old women say that
the soul Of man after his death as
cends to Heaven quickly and pleasant
~ in proportion 20 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 continuous
abstinence and eXcruciating self-infiic-
tions. A whole month passes in this
state of semi-starvation. The funeral
ceremonies which drag on till the end
of that period, are all performed, and
the rigid observances of the widow of a
little relaxed, if it may be so termed,
since the only relaxation allowed to
her is that she need not prepare the
food with her own hands, and that she
can change her clothes, but always
using only plain cotton saris. The
real misery of the widow, however,
begins after the first month. 1t is not
enough that she is quite heart broken
for her deceased husband, and that she
undergoes all the aforementioned
bodily privations. She must also bear
the most CALLING indignities and the
most humiliating self-sacrifces. She
can not take an active part in any
religious or social ceremony. If there
be wedding in the house the widow
must not touch OF in any way interfere
with the articles that are used to keep
the curious marriage customs. During
the poojahs, or religious festivals, she
is but grudgingly allowed to approach
near the object of veneration, and in
some bigoted families the contact of a
widow is supposed to pollute the ma
terials requisite for the performance of
marriage ceremonies. The widow is,
in fact, looked upon as the 'evil one
OF the house. If she has no son or
daughter to comfort her, or if she has
to pass her whole life, as is often the
case, with her husbands family, her
condition truly becomes helpless one.
During any ceremony or grand occa-
sion she has silently to look on, others
around her enjoying and sporting
themselves, and if some kind relation
does not come to relieve her tedium
she has hardly any thing to do but to
Illuminate on her present sad, wretched
condition. Every female member of a
family, whether married or unmarried,
can go to parties, but widow can not,
and if she expresses any wish to join
the family on such occasions it is in
stantly depressed by the curt rebuke of
her mother-in.law OF some other rela-
ton that ''she is widow and she must
not have such wishes. -DdUendr0 N.
DGS, IN Nineteenth Ceqotat7'Y.