196 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
and moistened his cheek with her tears ; after which 
he bore her in triumph to their former home. The 
return to domestic happiness soon restored him to 
health. His frame resumed its roundness and its 
vigour, his eye its brightness, his gait its elasticity, 
and his voice its strength. The joyful pair dwelt 
happily together, were blessed with a numerous pro- 
geny, and the story of the Brahminee wife was for a 
long time current on the coast of Malabar. 
When persons in India lose caste, nothing can ex- 
ceed the degradation ; but when restored to their 
former position, they are considered to have under- 
gone an expurgation so perfect that no moral defile- 
ment remains. This will at once account for the 
readiness with which the Brahminee in the narrative 
just given was received by her husband after she 
had recovered her lapsed honours. All his prejudices 
against her were merged in her moral renovation, and 
she became as pure in his eyes as if she had never 
fallen. Such an event could scarcely happen in the 
present state of European society ; but in India there 
would be nothing shocking in this to the mind of the 
most fastidious Hindoo. Their repugnances against 
moral deviations are less vivid than ours ; which will 
at once reconcile to European readers the seeming 
improbability of this Oriental narrative. 
