1850.] Eastern Districts of the Soubah of Ilydrabad, 20$ 



walk on cloths spread out, but without a canopy. The Hujjams, 

 Shepherds, Koomars and Chumars may ride on horseback : Bun-* 

 nyahs, Lingayets and Dhobees are permitted to ride on bullocks. 

 There are various other such distinctions, and woe be to him who 

 attempts to violate them by asserting a right which custom 

 has denied him. The Lingayets and their priests the Jungums 

 being comparatively a new sect, have some of these privileges 

 unsettled, or rather not sufficiently recognized, and tumults at 

 their marriages are frequent ; such disorders are fomented by the 

 Brahmins who abominate the Lingayets, and look on the Jungums 

 as obnoxious interlopers. 



The wives of Brahmins and the richer castes, acquire sometimes 

 reading, and writing, they are also taught before they leave the 

 parental roof how to sew, cook, and make plates of the leaves of 

 the butea frondosa. Such a thing as Suttee is now never heard of, 

 it would appear never to have been practised to any extent in 

 Telinganah. Mkkah is a Mahomedan institution, but the Hindoos 

 have something similar to it, which they call marmunnum, when 

 a sort of contract is formed with a widow, who after it, may live 

 in comparative respectability with her protector. A Brahmin may 

 keep a woman of an inferior caste with some little disgrace but 

 with no loss of caste, unless he descends very low indeed, and 

 takes up with a Chummarnee. The child of a Brahmin by a woman 

 of a respectable caste is called Vidhoor, he is not permitted under 

 the penalty of forfeiture of caste to keep the wife or daughter of 

 a Satani. No Bunnyah without degradation can keep a concu- 

 bine. 



Marriages are supposed to be consummated as soon as the girl 

 has attained the age of puberty, but if she be of a delicate consti- 

 tution, the fact of her having reached that period is carefully con- 

 cealed by her parents, from the bridegroom's relatives, who would 

 be in honor bound to consider such conduct offensive and insulting. 

 Much has been said of the extreme youth at which Indian women 

 become mothers, and rare examples have been produced to prove 

 the assertion, but the truth is that the average difference of age, 

 at which girls become marriageable in Europe, and in India does not 

 extend to more than eighteen months : a few months after concep- 

 tion the wife quits her parent's house and goes to live in her hus- 

 band's, till the period of parturition draws nigh ? when she again 



