76 
The ceremonies of the Hindoos open an ample field, on which 
I can now make only a few cursory observations. The children 
are married at the discretion of their parents; the girls at three or 
four, and the boys at six or eight years of age: the nuptials are 
very expensive; occasioned by an ostentatious parade, nocturnal 
processions, feasting for several days, and presents to the numerous 
guests. The bride afterwards sees her husband as a play-fellow, 
she is taught to place her affection on this object, and never thinks 
of any other; until, when about eleven years old, she is con- 
ducted with some ceremony to his house, and commences the 
duties of a wife, and the mistress of a family. But should the 
boy die during that interval, the girl must remain a widow for life, 
have her head shaved, be divested of every ornament, and perform 
many menial offices. One delicate attention which most of the 
Hindoo women voluntarily pay to their husband, is, that when 
he is absent from home for any length of lime, they seldom 
wear their jewels, or decorate themselves with ornaments; since the 
object they most wished to please is no longer in their presence. 
.No widow is permitted to marry a second time; but a man may 
have a succession of wives: polygamy is allowed by the Hindoo 
law, though not generally practised, except when the first wife 
proves barren. Every Hindoo must marry into his own caste; but 
among the lower classes at Bombay, I have known this ordinance 
evaded. And in several parts of India, especially in Mysore and 
Malabar, the ryots, or cultivator^ of the land, take as many wives 
as they can maintain, as the women there are extremely useful in 
different branches of husbandry, and are not expensive to their 
husbands. 
