Ch. xi. Indostcui and Tibet. 195 



Another obstacle to marriage arising from 

 Hindoo customs is, that an elder brother who does 

 not marry seems in a manner to confine all his 

 other brothers to the same state \ for a younger 

 brother, who marries before the elder, incurs dis- 

 grace, and is mentioned among the persons who 

 ought to be shunned.* 



The character, which the legislator draws of 

 the manners and dispositions of the women in 

 India, is extremely unfavourable. Among many 

 other passages expressed with equal severity, he 

 observes, that, " through their passion for men, 

 " their mutable temper, their want of settled 

 " affection and their perverse nature, let them be 

 " guarded in this world ever so well, they soon 

 " become alienated from their husbands.''^ 



This character, if true, probably proceeded 

 from their never being allowed the smallest de- 

 gree of liberty,^ and from the state of degrada- 

 tion to which they were reduced by the practice of 

 polygamy ; but however this may be, such pas- 

 sages tend strongly to shew that illicit inter- 

 course between the sexes was frequent, notwith- 

 standing the laws against adultery. These laws 

 are noticed as not relating to the wives of public 

 dancers or singers, or of such base men as lived 

 by the intrigues of their wives; % a proof that 

 these characters were not uncommon, and were 



* Sir William Jones's Works, vol. iii. c. iii. p. 141. 

 t Id. c. ix. p. 337. 

 X Id. c. v. p. 219. 

 J Id. c. viii. p. 325. 



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