THE CHILD WIVES OF INDIA.
WITH all that has been said and written upon the subject, we little realize how horrible their condition really is:— A child wife, only six or seven years old, is regarded by all her husband's family as the cause, more or less direct, of his death. She is treated at best with dislike, and often with great harshness and severity. Therefore the death of a young wife before her husband is a cause of great rejoicing among her friends that she has thus escaped widowhood. They are convinced that the gods have favored her, and that she has been advanced a degree in the great series of births and deaths through which every Hindu passes on his way to final perfection. The prayer of every little girl before marriage, and of every little girl and woman after marriage, is that she may never become a widow. The preservation of a husband's health is a matter of the greatest importance, and on a certain day of the year a special religious ceremony is observed with this end in view. It is emphatically the "Women's day," and occurs about the middle of January, when the sun is believed to turn northward. Offerings are made at the temples, money is given to the priests, pilgrimages are undertaken, fastings undergone, and vows performed for the preservation of a husband's health and life. When he is ill, the wife removes her jewels, puts on coarse clothing, and devotes herself to prayer and austerities. If he dies, her woe begins.—Selected.