Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-05-17
midas CHILD WIDOWS.
THE UNHAPPY LIVES LED BY THE
WOMEN OF THE EAST.
What High Caste Hindoo Christian
Woman Says of Her sisters-Betrothed
In Their Infancy They Are Till Death
the Slaves of Men.

What High Caste Hindoo Christian
Woman Says of Her siaters-Betrothed
In Their Infancy They Are TIL Death
the Slaves of Men.
At All Souls church. the Pundita Bamabai,
"a high caste Hindoo Christian woman, gave
nm interesting address concerning her work
in behalf of the child widows OF India. The
Pundta is a slender little woman with a low
musical voice She has a remarkable com
mand of English. She was attired in the
simple white vestments of her people. She
is endeavoring to raise sufficient money to
enable her 10 maintain school in southern
India for the instruction of Hindoo women.
The picture that the Pundita drew of the
condition of the Hindoo woman seemed to
have "A strange interest for the hundreds of
well dressed American women accustomed to
liberty of thought and action Tie Hindoo
theory of creation, the speaker explained,
placed the women as provocative energy,
the results of which have been sorrow and
misery The man therefore is the master
and is without blame. 1t is the duty of
good mother to get her daughter under the
influence of male at once for thereby is
the females only salvation and hope for
place in heaven. 1t is the custom, when
children arc mere infants, to promise them
10 youths for wives. When the girl is not
get in her teens she is sent to the house of her
prospective mother-in-law who educates her
with harsh measures and a stick, impressing
upon her her inferiority to the male. Only
men are allowed TO study the philosophy OF
salvation, and good wife on dying centers
her thoughts on her husband, SO that ON her
return to earth she may take the form of a
man and study the philosophy that brings
salvation.
WHEN THE HUSBAND DIES.
When the husband dies he does not let his
thoughts revert to his wife other than in a
feeling Of pity for her loss, lest he, on re-
turning, take n step backward and assume
the shape of a woman. woman who does
not find salvation through her husband will
be compelled. should she continue in the
form Of her sex, to be reincarnated $4,000
times. The domestic life of the Hindoo
woman is confined in four walls, and the
only opportunity she has of going outside is
to draw water. She rises and remains
standing when her husband enters the house
and seats himself. The husband can avail
himself of the privilege of bathing himself
in the sacred river but she, because of her
domestic Imprisonment, being debarred from
making the journey, can enjoy only the ex-
quisite pleasure of bathing his feet after he
has been swimming and then drink the
water. A Ne lbN'il Ol lnt uuSDdlu Is dLSb-
lutte He can doom his wife to hell if he be
in the mood, as he is endowed with the
power of god. A faithful widow worships
her dead husband if he We're present in
the Ash. Study makes the women skepti-
cal .ence they are jealousy debarred from
it as b violation of orthodoxy.
F'Missionary work cannot accomplish the
disenthrallment of these women" said the
Pundita; sit must be done through educa-
ton. So far as my experience goes | think
that it is next to impossible for missionaries
to reach the orthodox people, as they are
callel. There are some men who are at first
educated in western ideas, especially the
Brahms, who will allow a Christian mission
airy to visit the women of their household,
but most of them do it because they want the
women TO be little educated, and since they
have no female teachers of their own they
are obliged to invite Christian women; but
nave known the men, while they allow
Christian missionary to visit their wives, to
strictly command their wives not to accept
any religious ideas, and thus placed the poor
woman in the plight of being compelled to
obey her husband, and at the same time read
her Bible. II she is sometimes convinced,
sIe no power to accept the Christian faith
publicly. Inns renders her situation doubly
miserable. New York World.