han
are found in all Europe; they also present a greater diversity of type.
Between the aboriginal tribes which treat the weaker sex only as a beast
of burden, and the Parsee community which holds its women in the highest
consideration and furnishes them with a liberal education and large
opportunity, there are many intermediate tribes and nations which regard
their women with varying degrees of consideration and of contempt.

Of all Scriptures the Zend Avesta of the Parsees is the only one which
furnishes woman, from the beginning, with absolute equality with man; and
that position she has never lost among the Parsees. But the Parsees in
India are a mere handful.

The Hindu woman constitutes four-fifths of the total number of her sex in
India; and her condition is fairly uniform everywhere and conforms, in
varying degrees, to a type whose characteristics are easily recognized.
She has come down from earliest history. We recognize her everywhere in
the pages of their ancient literature, in their laws and legends; and we
behold her in all the manifold walks of modern life. For nearly a quarter
of a century the writer has lived as her neighbour, gazed daily upon her
life, wondered at and admired her many noble traits which have been
preserved under the most adverse circumstances, and grieved over her
weakness and her many disabilities.

In ancient times, the position of woman in India was one of power coupled
with honour. Today the power remains, but the honour has been largely
eliminated.

1. In ancient Vedic times woman enjoyed many distinctions and revealed
great aptitude. She joined her husband in the offering of domestic
sacrifices and sat as queen in the home. Some of the sacred hymns of the
Rigveda were made by her and have come down these thirty centuries as a
beautiful testimony to her intellectual brightness and aspiration, and as
an evidence of the honour in which she was held.

Five centuries later this beautiful description was given of her in the
Mahabarata:

"A wife is half the man, his truest friend;
A loving wife is a perpetual spring
Of virtue, pleasure, wealth; a faithful wife
Is his best aid in seeking heavenly bliss;
A sweet speaking wife is a companion
In solitude, a father in advice,
A mother in all seasons of distress,
A rest in passing through life's wilderness."

The rights and opportunities of woman are strikingly illustrated by many
of the legends of their ancient epics. For instance