26 Timehri. 



child, a girl, or an old woman, she cannot do anything in the house as a 

 free agent. In her childhood she is under the authority of her father, in 

 her j'outh under that of her husband, and after the death of her husband 

 she is in subjection to her children ! " " She can never be free." 



The following passage hits at men somewhat hard, yet our ladies 

 would not quite like to follow the commands of this Shastra : — 



il A woman should never look on a man's beauty or youth, it should 

 not matter to her whether he is handsome or ugly, let her adore his 

 manhood only ; man is by nature busy, inconstant, and hard-hearted, 

 therefore it is her dut}' to keep an eye on him ! " 



A woman is not allowed to sit together with her father, brother, or 

 husband, nor to eat with them. We have frequently noticed in this 

 country the males eating out of a saucepan, and when they were satisfied, 

 to throw down the saucepan for a woman, and in many instances, with 

 not as much grace as we give food to our dogs ! Woman is a mere chattel. 

 Our readers must frequently have noticed that when the coolies take 

 their wives for a walk, they invariably walk in front and the women 

 follow, generally at a distance of some two or three yards. 



It would also appear that there is no necessity for a woman to have 

 any religion, and if we read Manu's rightly, he says : — 



" For women there is no need of a special religion, abstinence, or 

 religious fasting, for by their revering their husbands, they are considered 

 great in the Kingdom of Heaven/' 



We hope our lad}- friends will not mind our next quotation. We 

 will endeavour to translate it into as mild English as we can — 



<: It is a natural fault of a woman to utter what is not true, to do 

 things without consideration, to make use of stratagem, to say hard words, 

 as well as to be impure and cruel. It is also their nature to blame their 

 husbands, therefore let wise men beware of women ! 



There was a time — we are happy to be able to use the past tense, — 

 there was a time, when woman was considered very useful and all that 

 was good. This was at the time of Suttee — or the practice of burning 

 women alive after the death of their husbands. Professor Max Muller 

 has proved that there is no passage in the Vedas sanctioning the burning 

 of women. It was an " innovation and a heresy ; but it was an innovation 

 of 2,000 years standing, and a heresy abetted by the priesthood since the 

 days of Alexander." Women are expressly forbidden even to follow their 

 husbands to the graves, as the following passage proves : — 



" With the verse ' Rise woman' the wife ascends to follow her dead 

 husband : the younger brother of the departed repeating the verse, 

 prevents her. The Hotri priest performs that act. if there is no brother- 

 in-law. but to follow the dead husband is forbidden, so says the law of the 

 Brahrnans." 



