ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 119 



so it was a long job. When all was at length over, Chinniah's 

 tears dried, and the arms bathed and bandaged, so eaten 

 up was she with vanity that she had to be threatened with 

 having them tied together to keep her from exposing them 

 to the heat and the bites of insects — perhaps to the spoiling 

 of their beauteous effect in the future ; and this argument 

 prevailed. 



The bandaging had to be attended to daily. Unsightly 

 as those arms looked at first, they must have felt worse ; 

 but Pride, if it does feel pain, can yet bear any amount of 

 it. I never saw such a struggle between resolute vanity 

 and physical weakness ; the power of the mind over the 

 body could not have been more aptly illustrated ; for there 

 was no obligation on the girl to undergo this torture beyond 

 her own desire to be at least equal to other women in her 

 outward adornments — a sufficiently urgent one with her 

 sex as long as the world lasts. 



