their husbands. It was an ancient custom, adopted from
the Scythian tribes, who sacrificed not only the wives, but the
concubines and slaves and horses upon the tombs of their dead
lords.

The British government forbade "suttee," as widow burning was
called, and although we hear that it is still practiced occasionally
in remote parts of the empire, such an act would be punished
as murder if the police were to learn of it. But the fate of
some thousands of widows is worse than death, because among the
superstitious Hindus they are held responsible for the death
of their husbands, and the sin must be expiated by a life of
suffering and penance. As long as a widow lives she must serve as
a slave to the remainder of the family, she must wear mourning,
be tabooed from society, be deprived of all pleasures and comforts,
and practice never-ending austerities, so that after death she
may escape transmigration into the body of a reptile, an insect
or a toad. She cannot marry again, but is compelled to remain in
the house of her husband's family, who make her lot as unhappy
and miserable as possible.

The Brahmins prohibit the remarriage of widows, but in 1856 Lord
Canning legalized it, and that was one of the causes of the mutiny.
The priests and conspirators told the native soldiers that it was
only a step toward the abolition of all their rites and customs.
The law, however, is a dead letter, and while there have been
several notable marriages of widows, the husband and wife and
the entire family have usually been boycotted by their relatives,
neighbors and friends; husbands have been ruined in business
and subjected to every humiliation imaginable.

If you will examine the census statistics you will be astonished
at the enormous number of widows in India. Out of a total of
144,000,000 women in 1901, 25,891,936 were widows, of whom 19,738,468
were Hindus. This is accounted for by child marriage, for it is
customary for children five years of age and upwards to become
husbands and wives. At least 50 per cent of the adherents of
Brahminism are married before they are ten years old and 90 per
cent before they are fifteen. This also is an ancient custom and
is due to several reasons. Fathers and mothers desire to have
their children settled in life, as we say, as early as possible,
and among the families of friends they are paired off almost as
soon as they are born. The early marriage, however, is not much
more than a betr