Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1896-03-19
WOMAN'S LIFE IN INDIA.

According to the Buffalo Courier Mrs.
Libbie c. Griffin, who spent the greater
part of her life in India, gives an in
teresting account of that far-away
country. Mrs. Griffin tells of the sor-
row of the mother of the girl when it
was born. All of Hindoo woman's
life, and, indeed, that of her husband,
is bound up in the hopes of having
son. According to the Brahmin re-
ligion man can with certainty escape
hell ii he has a son living at the time
of his death While a woman does not
give birth to son in eleven years her
husband must cast her aside and
choose another wife by whom he may
possibly have a son. A vivid COM
parison was made between the lives of
boy and girl. On the sixth night
after the birth of child the mother
and child lie down together in the same
room and sleep. An inkstand and pen
are placed in the room and a midwife
watches the sleepers. If the child
means and losses the gods are writing
a sorrOwful existence on it's forehead.
If it smiles, the opposite may be
awaited. At the end of a month the
astrologer comes and seeks to solve the
fate of the child's life. At the end of
six months the child is given the first
taste of rice and water In all these
ceremonies there is much feasting and
celebrating in the case of boy, but
nothing except the ceremony itself in
the case Of a girl.
A girl has miserable time of it all
her life. Only at night is a mother
allowed to kiss or caress her child. The
boys are allowed to roam at will; but
girls must remain indoors and can only
get out at long intervals for short
periods. At years of age the child is
married.. e., the first wedding cere-
mony takes place. 1t is more of a
formal betrothal, but with all the bind
ing of genuine wedding The child
must now remain indoors and her face
must be hidden from all men. If she
is the daughter of a cast-off wife
that is, one who for eleven years has
borne no SOn-she has to suffer many
prosecutions, which eventually lead
her to almost any evil or sin. At II
years of age the husband, too often a
very old man. comes to take the child
10 his home. Often the child does not
wish to go, and shrieks while she
Vainly attempts to escape from the
messengers sent to bring her to the
waiting husband.
Mrs. Griffin drew the picture of the
child-wife in her new home; the early
birth of a son, and the broken health
of the mother due to this early birth,
The water famine, such as there was
four years ago. and the breaking out
of cholera, resulting in the death of the
husband When the husband dies the
wife is shut up in room, sometimes
for years, where she sees no one. Her
Imprisonment depends on the caprice
of the mother-in-law.
Mrs. Griffin says the child she had
been describing had had a happy life
as the life Of Hindoo girls go. She has
never been burned with red-hot irons
by her husband, and her husband has
not beaten her as much as other wives
have been beaten. Beatings she has
received but the red-hot irons, al
though common, she has escaped. AS
a widow, however, she is in disgrace,
and the sooner she dies the better for
her. 1t is bad luck to look into her
face first on arising in the morning.
She is allowed one meal day, and all
delicacies needed, owing to her broken
health as the result of early births,
are withheld. The reason is evident
widows are not wanted, and they can
never remarry.