MISCELLANEOUS. 



689 



for his daily support, and lays the 

 rest up, in a place of security, for 

 the sake of her children. And 

 so great is the power they possess, 

 as to the disposal of their children, 

 that frequently they are brought 

 up without any education, or die 

 in childhood ; for the women, on 

 account of their little sense, are 

 never pleased to part with their 

 children, by sending them to 

 school, and to acquire experience 

 by travelling; and when they fall 

 sick, they give them improper 

 medicines, by the advice of their 

 own confidants, or, from their 

 softness of heart, indulge them in 

 whatever it is the nature of the 

 sick to take a longing for, and 

 thus they cause their death. 



Second, " Their power, by cus- 

 tom, as to the marriage ot their 

 children, and choice of their reli- 

 gious faith ;" for if the husband 

 wishes to give one of them in mar- 

 riage to a person the wife disap- 

 proves of, the match does not take 

 place, but the other way it gene- 

 lally does. All the children, both 

 male and female, from being most- 

 ly in the company of their mo- 

 ther, and looking upon her as 

 their protector against their fa- 

 ther, whom, on account of his 

 wishing to have them educated, 

 they consider their tormentor, fol- 

 low the religious tenets of their 

 mother, and remain perfect stran- 

 gers to those of their father. It 

 often happens, where the wife is 

 a Shya, and the husband a Soony, 

 the children having been Shyas, 

 from their own natural disposition 

 and the instructions of the mother, 

 speak disrespectfully of the chiefs 

 of the Soony sect in their father's 



f)resence ; and he, who all his 

 ife never boresuch language from 

 Vol. LII. 



any person, but was even ready to 

 put the speaker of it to death, has 

 no redress, but patiently submit- 

 ting to hear it from them, as, on 

 account of their want of under- 

 standing, they are excusable; and 

 thus, by frequent repetition, his 

 attachment to his faith is shaken, 

 and, in the course of lime, he 

 either entirely forsakes it, or re- 

 mains but lukewarm in it. 



Third, " Their authority over 

 their servants;" for the servants 

 of the male apartments, the keep- 

 ing and changing of whom are in 

 the hands of the husband, through 

 fear of exposing themselves to the 

 displeasure or complaints of the 

 wife when she finds a proper op- 

 portunity, by their committing 

 some fault, which servants are 

 continually doing, are more obe- 

 dient to her than to their own 

 master; and the servants of the ze- 

 nana, whom the wife has the care 

 of retaining or turning oft", stand 

 so much in awe of their mistress, 

 that many of them pass their 

 whole lives in the zenana, without 

 ever once coming into the presence 

 of the husband : some of them 

 never perform any service for him 

 at all ; and others who do, enter 

 not into discourse with him : and 

 the women are so obstinate in this 

 respect, their husbands never can 

 turn off one of these servants, but 

 his verv complaint against them 

 is a recommendation in their fa- 

 vour; and his recommendation 

 has the effect of complaint, by 

 subjecting them to their mistress's 

 resentment. Contrary to this is 

 the manner of the European la- 

 dies, who have aot their own will 

 with their children and servants, 

 but live more like free and fami- 

 liar guests in their husband's 

 2 Y 



