46 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



its merest outlines, in order to show of what it mainly consists, 

 whither it tends, and how it affects those that lead it. Hindoo ex- 

 clusiveness absolutely prohibits outsiders from personally observ- 

 ing what I am about to describe, and all that can possibly be done 

 by persons such as I, is to procure our facts as nearly at first hand 

 as practicable. Hence the necessity of explaining briefly what the 

 sources of my information are. Chiefly, then, I have drawn upon 

 matters which have come to me as the first hearer of the tale ; 

 partly because I am quite sure that all the facts thus learned are 

 straight from the mouths of trustworthy natives of India, and 

 partly because I should be sorry to be, by any mishap, a misinter- 

 preter of other people's writings. Although I shall not be wit- 

 tingly guided by any one of them, there are several works of 

 original information, more or less directly bearing on my subject, 

 which all who are interested in it would do well to study. Among 

 these are " Hindoos as they are," written, indeed, by a Christian 

 convert with something of the convert's proverbial asperity to- 

 ward the followers of the religion he has discarded, but con- 

 taining much that is valuable to the student ; " The Hindoo Fam- 

 ily " of Balram Malik, a far superior work to the last, by the well- 

 known Judge of the Calcutta Small Cause Court, who has treated 

 his subject as only he can, that is, in full sympathy with it, and, of 

 course, with complete knowledge ; and " The Life of a Hindoo 

 "Woman," by the celebrated Brahmani Ramabai, who was driven 

 to Christianity at last by the persecution of her co-religionists. 

 For Mohammedans, there are Dr. Herklot's " Quanoon-e-Islam " 

 and " Notes on the Indian Musalmans," by the wife of Mir Ali 

 Hasan, who was an Englishwoman. And then there are several 

 collections of folk-songs — notably Gover's from southern India, 

 and Grierson's from the north — which, between the lines, contain 

 facts about Indian women that none can gainsay. However, I 

 shall now confine myself to statements based, firstly, on notes sup- 

 plied me by natives for " Pan jab Notes and Queries," which I 

 have edited from the commencement ; secondly, to the late Dr. 

 Fallon's splendid collection of " Hindustani Proverbs," 12,500 in 

 number, which I commenced editing and translating in 1883 ; and, 

 thirdly, to the various collections of folk-songs that I have made 

 and published at different times within the last eight years. 



An Indian woman's life in its ordinary course is divided into 

 two clearly defined parts, which are quite distinct, though sepa- 

 rated from each other only by the fateful day on which she first 

 goes to take up her abode within her father-in-law's family. Note 

 that it is not called in the Indian languages her husband's family, 

 for that, under the Indian family system, it can seldom be in the 

 case of a bride. Childhood rather than girlhood is the heyday of 

 the Indian woman. Free to play as she pleases, with plenty of 



