50 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



born within it, though they all dwell under his protection and at 

 his expense. You will perceive, therefore, that the women's lives 

 are contracted to within even a smaller sphere than that limited 

 by the boundaries of the common family dwelling. 



What would seem to us to be intolerable restrictions by no 

 means end here. In many places it is not proper for a young 

 father to fondle his own children in the presence of his parents, 

 and highly improper for a wife to be seen holding converse, or 

 appearing unveiled, or sitting down before her own husband, un- 

 til she has become a mother. 



There is another custom regarding which it is useless to pre- 

 tend that it does not lead to endless misery and family squabbling 

 — the absolute subjugation of the women to the materfamilias. 

 The mother-in-law is indeed an awful personage in the eyes of her 

 sons' wives, one against whose will and caprice it is hopeless to 

 rebel. I can hardly describe her power better than by noticing a 

 daily ceremony which symbolizes it. It really amounts to wish- 

 ing " good-morning," is called in upper India mc'dhd teknd, and 

 consists of bowing down to the ground and touching it with the 

 forehead. All the women, except her own daughters, perform it 

 daily to the materfamilias when they first see her, and a bride 

 must do it practically to everybody. 



An Indian woman's happiness in life immensely depends on 

 her becoming the mother of a son. This at once raises her in the 

 family estimation, which is all in all to her ; insures her against 

 the greatest bitterness of widowhood, in case that befall her ; and 

 procures her domestic authority should she survive to mature 

 years under coverture. Materfamilias is a veritable queen in her 

 own little world, often coercing her husband, commanding her 

 sons, and ruling the rest as she pleases. From what has come 

 under my observation, I have long felt assured that, speak con- 

 temptuously of the opposite sex as they choose, lock them up as 

 they may, and treat them as mere breeders of sons as they will, 

 the natives of India are far more henpecked than they care to ad- 

 mit. Outside of their homes the men live a life of their own, un- 

 trammeled by considerations of the fair sex ; within them they 

 have little control, and it must be borne in mind that it is the 

 women that have come to be such sticklers for the continuance of 

 the state of things I have above endeavored to describe. The re- 

 marks just made apply, as above said, to the mothers of sons only. 

 Should a woman be so unfortunate as not merely to be barren, but 

 to be simply the mother of daughters, life goes much harder with 

 her, especially as this is so liable to bring upon her that which (if 

 their songs and sayings are to be trusted) the Indian women dread 

 more than all things except widowhood — the advent of the co- 

 wife. There are proverbs innumerable to show how very badly 



