﻿310 ON THE RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES 



star as an emblem of stability. They then partake 

 of a meal. The bridegroom remains three days at 

 the house of the bride's father. On the fourth day, 

 he conducts her to his own house in solemn proces- 

 sion. She is there welcomed by his kindred : and 

 the solemnity ends with oblations to fire. 



Among Hindus a girl is married before the age of 

 puberty. The laM' evTU censures the delay of her 

 marriage beyond the tenth year. For this reason, 

 and because the bridegroom too may be an infant, 

 it is rare that a marriage should be consummated 

 until long after its solemnization. The recital of 

 prayers on this occasion constitutes it a religious 

 ceremony, and it is the first of those that are per- 

 formed for the purpose of expiating the sinful taint 

 which a child is supposed to contract in the womb of 

 his mother. They shall be described in a future 

 essay. 



On the practice of immature nuptials, a subject 

 suggested in the preceding paragraph, it may be re- 

 marked, that it arises from a laudable motive ; from 

 a sense of duty incumbent on a father, who con- 

 siders as a debt the obligation of providing a suitable 

 match for his daughter. This notion, which is 

 strongly inculcated by Hindu legislators, is for- 

 cibly impressed on the minds of parents. But in 

 their zeal to dispose of a daughter in marriage, they 

 do not perhaps sufficiently consult her domestic 

 felicity. By the death of an infant husband, she is 

 condemned to virgin widowhood for the period of 

 her life. If both survive, the habitual bickerings 

 of their infancy are prolonged in perpetual discord. 



Numerous restrictions in the assortment of 

 matches impose on parents this necessity of embracing 

 the earliest opportunity of affiancing their children 

 to fit companions. The intermarriages of different 

 classes, formerly permitted, with certain limita- 

 tions, are now wholly forbidden. The prohibited 



degrees 



