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the bridegroom too may be an infant, it is rare that a marriage 

 should be consummated until long after it solemnization. The 

 recital of prayers on this occasion constitutes it a religious cere- 

 mony, and it is the first of those that are performed for the pur- 

 pose of expiating the sinful taint which a child is supposed to 

 have contracted in the womb of his mother." 



" On the practice of immature nuptials, a subject suggested in 

 the preceding paragraph, it may be remarked, that it arises from 

 a laudable motive; from a sense of duty incumbent on a father, 

 who considers as a debt the obligation of providing a suitable 

 match for his daughter. This notion, which is strongly inculcated 

 by Hindoo legislators, is forcibly 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 widow- 

 hood 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 limitations, 

 are now wholly forbidden. The prohibited degrees extend to the 

 sixth of affinity; and even the bearing of the same family name is 

 a sufficient cause of impediment." 



Another writer on the Hindoo marriages, after reciting the 

 previous ceremonies, says " the tali, which is a ribbon with a 

 golden head hanging to it, is held ready; and, being shewn to the 

 company, some prayers and blessings are pronounced; after which 



