The Hindus in the West Indies. 29 



" respectable " marriage can be celebrated at a smaller cost than $2,500 

 and it has been known to exceed $60,000. The savings of years are thus 

 dissipated in a few days of extravagance, and families which were in 

 comfortable circumstances are plunged into poverty and debt by the 

 marriage of one of their members. 



The expenditure consists not in eating or drinking or the giving of 

 presents to the bride. The Hindus are very abstemious, and it is not the 

 eating and drinking that runs away with the money, but the giving of 

 presents of garments and moneys to the guests, feeing the Brahmans, 

 processions, and fireworks. 



As the Hindu are very superstitious, and believe in the science of 

 astrology, they never " fix the day " until the Jyotishi or family astrologer, 

 has fixed the auspicious day and hour. The bride is given away by her 

 father or his representative at her own home. . 



The ceremony begins by worshipping Ganesha, who should be 

 invoked at the beginning of every action, for it is the province of this 

 deity to ward off the obstacles by which all undertakings are liable to be 

 thwarted by the malice of evil spirits. In the case of the marriage of 

 Brahmans, the most important parts of the ceremony are — 



(a) The saptapadi (4) the leading of the bride around the sacred tire 

 each time in seven steps. 



(b) The offering of the burnt oblation (homa) by the bridegroom. 



(c) The binding together of the bride and bridegroom by a cord 

 passed around their necks. 



(d) The tying together of their dresses. (5.) 



In this colony we have noticed that in addition to some of the cere- 

 monies abovementioned — both the coolie bride and bridegroom put on a 

 gold or silver necklace called hasli, and if the people are too poor they 

 borrow it. 



After the ceremony is ended the bride is taken to the bridegroom's 

 father's house and the husband puts her under the care of his mother. 

 The mother-in-law considers her son's spouse as little better than a slave. 

 Hence very often the Hindu spouse flies back to her parents, and the 

 misery of a married life begins. 



Not only is the Hindu bride placed under the care of her good 

 mother-in-law; - but also in an apartment set apart for ladies. These 

 apartments are called Zenanas. They are usually the most dreary places, 

 never visited by men. In Europe, and here, if we cannot give the ladies 

 better rooms than those occupied by the men, at any rate they possess 

 the best possible apartments. It is not so in India. The man have the 

 best rooms and 'he best furniture, the women the worst rooms and no 

 furniture at all. As the bride has no accomplishments, she cannot play, 

 paint or read, so her life is a wearisome one. A great deal of her time is 



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