. DOMESTIC LIFE. 249 



and you know that I will be as good as my word." The 

 terror inspired by such threats, the difficulty of bringing evi- 

 dence before English courts, and the facility of retreat into 

 the deep jungles by which many of the provinces are bor- 

 dered, enabled them long to baffle the efforts of government. 

 They appeared even to increase, threatening to annihilate 

 the security of properly, and convert the country into an 

 extensive desert. The administration, however, roused to 

 the most vigorous exertion, have in later times effected a 

 very material reduction in the number of those banditti. 

 About 1814, indeed, they were almost entirely put down; 

 though they have since to a certain extent revived. 



Domestic life, a most important branch of the social con- 

 dition of any people, is peculiarly interesting as it applies 

 to the Hindoo, whose regards are in a great measure con- 

 fined within his family circle. The jealous character of 

 oriental despotism views with aversion all public assem- 

 blages ; it checks even that mingled intercourse among 

 mankind which we call general society. With the excep- 

 tion of great men, whose vanity is gratified by public dis- 

 play, the Hindoo forms few connexions beyond those of his 

 own household. Marriage, the basis of family ties, is con- 

 sidered not only desirable and agreeable, but absolutely in- 

 dispensable. A youth of twenty-five and a girl of fifteen, 

 unmarried, are regarded as not less particular than unfor- 

 tunate. Mr. Ward mentions a party of old maids, who, to 

 escape from this reproachful condition, united themselves 

 in marriage to an old Bramin, as his friends were carrying 

 him to die on the banks of the Ganges. Yet the felicity en- 

 joyed in the matrimonial state corresponds very little with 

 the anxiety thus felt to enter it. Hindoo laws and institu- 

 tions doom the fair portion of the species to the most de- 

 pressed and pitiable lot. Every avenue by which an idea 

 could possibly enter their minds is diligently closed. It is 

 unlawful for them to open a book ; they must not join in 

 the public service of the temples ; and any man, even their 

 husbands, would consider himself disgraced by entering into 

 conversation with them. The degradation of the wife is 

 Tendered deeper by the despotic power which usage grants 

 to the mother-in-law, who regards her son's spouse as little 

 better than a slave. Hence a rupture often very speedily 

 ensues , the bride, unable to endure her bondage, flies back 



