Omaha daily bee., 1889-06-30

high as
FIFTY POUNDS OF JEwELRY.
This is often brass, but not infrequently of
silver and gold. 1 saw one woman in a tur-
ban who had a nose ring as big around as
the top OF goblet fastened by a gold ch ain
to a hole in her ear. She had gold earrings
with gold chains attached to them, so made
that they covered the. ear, and around her
neck were strands of corals, of silver beads
and silver coins. A great silver chain hung
from the bottom of hor earrings down to
her waist ana she had bracelets and nnklets
and rings on toes md fingers. There are
here IN Bombay three thousand jewelers.,
and at Delhi thegreat business Of tho people
Is the muking of gold and silver ornaments.
Pundita Rainabai, the high caste Hindoo
woman who has beon rnising funds in Amer
lea for the establishment of n college for the
child widows of India, has Just returned
home She is now at Poona, q delightful
spot in thehills about one hundred miles
from Bombay, and she will soon begin the
construction Of her institution. The Amer
ican women, who have formed Ramabai's
circles over the United States, have wasted
neither their pity nor their money. The con-
ditlon of the child widows Is even wore than
she has painted it,and these infant marriages
which have seen, together with many talks
which have had with both natives and for
eigners, have given me an insight into the
horrors of Hindoo marriages and Hindoo
widowhoed. The Hindoo wife is in para
disc compared TO the Hindoo widow The
slave of her husband she eats after he is
through, and she takes what is left She has
no education TO speak of. and her only hope
of salvation is in him. She stands while he
IL she lives in the Interior go TO the
Gauges and bathe herself in the sacred
water. am told that in many cases she
considers it privilege to bathe her hus-
bands feet after he returns, and thinks III at
she gets some absplution from sin by drink
water. ~
the Ganges must bathe by themselves The
Hindoo woman worships her husband. and
the husband returns the worship by doin
as little as possible for his wife When he
dies he does not dare to pity his wife for
fear that in tho next transmigration he may
become a woman, and her only hope of hav-
ing any chance to escape hell after his death
is by entering into the torments of hell on
this earth rs a pious Hindoo widow.
There are six million widows in India, and
as the majority of the marriages take pla &C
under ten, the greater part of these women
became widows as children A Hlndoo
widow can mover marry again, even if her
husband dies before the ceremony of ma r
riage. Ii she is betrothed, she is condemned
TO widowhood
FOR THE REST OF HER LIFE.
Az a widow she must give up all the
pleasures of this world. She must never
wear any iewelry, never sleep on n bed, and
for the rest of her life she becomes the slave
of her mother-in-law's family. She eats by
herself and cooks her own food. The mo-
ment her husband dies her ornaments are
torn from her She is clad in the poorest OF
clothing, and at the funeral she is kept out
of the main body of the mourners, and she is
looked upon as though she had the plague.
Most OF the Hindoos Cremate their dead by u
river, and it used to be the custom for widows
to throw themselves alive on tho funeral
pyres OF their husbands and allow themselves
TO be burned to death. This was sure pass
port to heaven, ana 1t would exist to-day
were 1t not that the English have prohibited
it. At Benares / saw a half-dozen inonu
ments, rude pieces OF stone eighteen inches
high and foot square, which had been put
up in honor of women who nat so killed
themselves.
For a year after the death Of the husband
tho widow has especial rites OF morning TO
perform. For thirteen days after the funeral
she must not change her clothes No one
pays any attention to her or gives her a
kind word She must be content with one
meal a day and at the end OF this time her
head is shaved AT certain intervals
throughout her life she is expected to fast.
and these intervals include two days of fast
ing during every month of her widowhood.
During these daya she must touch nothing
ing the shape Of liquid or solid food, and
whether she is sick or well it makes no diff;
ference. rhe Hindoos say that the soul of
man, after his death, goes to heaven
quickly and pleasantly in proportion to the
sutfcringss of his wife during the month
after his denth. Consequently the mother
in-law and the rest of the relatiues try to
make these sufferihgs ms great as possible.
The widow can nevor take part in any fes-
tlvity, and il would be an evil omen If she
attended marriage. She gets no words of
pity from the women Of tho household, and
she Is lower than the servants. Even in
death she has not the funeral of ether
women Her body is not burned In the
clothes she had on, and only n coarse, white
cloth covers her as she lies on the funeral
pyre. Her husband, if he would, could not
help her condition. Women can not in
herit property among the Hindoos. and If
ANYTHING is left by the husband it goes to The
children.
In the northwest provinces OF India, where
the
uoLIEsT OF THE nINDoos
i've, the treatment of the widows is evenl
worse than that described In the above
statements. Here the woman is often
dragged along with her husbands corpse to
the cremation. She is pushed into the water
and made to sCand there while the body is
burning. She comes home in her wet clothes
and she dare not change them. It matters
not If she be sick or whether. the weather bo
warm or cold. She sleeps in these clothes
for thirteen days and she is persecutod by
all. i found here at Bombay statement of
one of the Hindoo widows from this part Of
India. II was translated by an English lady
and appeared in an Indian newspaper. The
following is an extract from it,:
''ThouBands of US die, but more live.
saw woman die, one or my own cousins.
| She had been Ill before her husbands death.
| When he died she was too weak and i'll to be
| dragged to tho river She was in burning
| fever. Her mother-in-law called q water
| carrier and had four large skins of
! water poured over her rs she lald on the
| ground, whore she had been thrown from
| her bed when her husband died. The chill
| OF death came upon her, and in eight hours
| she breathed her last. Everyone praised
her and said she died for the lovo of her
| husband.n
| 81 knew another woman who did not love
| her husband, for all their friends knew they
| quarreled so much they could not live to-
| gether. The husband died, aud when the
! news was brought the widow threw herself
| from the roof and died. She could not bear
| the thought OF the degradation that must
| follow. She was praised by all. The only
difference for us since the English have pre-
| vented us from burning ourselves upon our
| funeral pyres Is that we then die quickly, IL
| cruelty, but now we die all our lives
IN LINGERING PAIN.
| We are aghast at the number Of widows
| how Is IL that there are 40 manyi 1t is be-
| cause every man who died leaves one and
often mora, and though thousands dio. more
| live on.n
| Notwithstanding all this, there is, doubt
| not, somo love among the Hindoos and there
may be some happy homes. AS far az can
| see, much homo life is impossible Ninety
nine hundredths Of the people live in mud