The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-06-14

from the census Of British India. as
they were gathered last year. They
put the number Of widows at 10000
goo, a number equal to. almost one
half of our whole female population
India has one widow for her every six
women and girls, and millions OF
these widows have many years vet to
live. AS to the baby widows, there
are $4,000 of five years and under
and more than 100. 600 of between five
and tert years. There are 275,0OO young
girls, who range between . ten anC
fifteen years Of age, undergoing the
slavery of Widowhood, a worse slavery
than has ever been imposed upon any
nation. white or black. in any Other
part Of the world.
You have heard how in the past the
widows threw themselves on the fu-
neral pyreS Of their husbands and
burned themselves to death. In 1870
the British government kept count,
and its records showed hat 300 Wo-
men had SO inundated themselves
within thirty miles of Calcutta in the
space of six mOnth In the next %
years more than 20, 600 were SO burn
ed, and 1t was not until long there
after that the custom was stopped.
This burning was called 'suttee," and
it is questionable whether it was not
preferable to continued widowhood,
which is now known as cold suffice.
The widow is condemned to a living
death. She burns daily with want.
disgrace and shame; her predecessor
was happy in that she died but once.
The Temple Brides.
/ attended a edding the other
night at which abou five hundred
Hindoos were present. The groom
was about six years old. He was a
bright little fellow in a red velvet
coat, tight velvet trousers and a cap
of cloth of gold. The bride was not
present, and whether she was a baby
or not / do not know. The chief fea-
ture of the ceremony was the dancing
of some Nautch girls to the music OF
two drums and an Indian fiddle. The
girls vent through the most surpris-
ing contortions. They twisted them
selves this way and that; they bent
back and forth as though they were
India rubber the most of their dane
ing being without lifting their feet
from the ground Some of their mo-
tons were beyond description indie
cen l am told that the Nautch girls
are professional dancers, and that
their profession is about the only one
open to the young women of India
are by no means as good as they
should be, but being bad is a part Of
their business, and the people respect
them.
Allied to them is a class Of girls
are bad for religions sake. They
are the tenn pie brides who are bred
to dance at the shrines, to pander to
the priests and sing obscene songs to
the gods. They are obtained while
yet chih by the temples through
purchase or as gifts from the parents,
and are educated for the
Som etirnes a man who has recovered
from illness buys q girl and presents
her thus as q. gift to the gods, or il
one has a stroke of good luck he may
the priests such a present. If
temple brides ave daughters they
brought up as dancing girls, be-
ing taught to read and sing and in
.structed in all the arts of seduction.
These girls are licensed by law, but
of late years their excuses have be-
come such that even the natives have
to object. Three years G q
of Hind COS asked the Bombay
government to suppress the custom in
state, and there was an attempt
to do so. 1t failed because the masses
Of the people. looked upon the insti-
tuition as having been sanctified by re-
Iigion, and the British make
It a principle to do nothing that af-
fects the faith of their subjects Just
now a similar action has been started
CONTINUED OF Page Sixteen.)