othal, for after it takes place, usually with
great ceremony, the children are sent back to their homes and
remain under the care of their parents until they reach a proper
age, when the wife is conducted with great rejoicing to the home
of her husband, and what is equivalent to another marriage takes
place. This occurs among the highly educated and progressive Hindus.
They defend the custom as wise and beneficial on the theory that
it is an advantage for husband and wife to be brought up together
and have their characters molded by the same influences and
surroundings. In that way, they argue, much unhappiness and trouble
is prevented. But in India, as everywhere else, the mortality
is greatest among children, and more than 70 per cent of the
deaths reported are of persons under ten years of age. Those
who are married are no more exempt than those who are not, which
explains the number of widows reported, and no matter how young
a girl may be when her husband dies she can never have a second.

Widowers are allowed to marry again and most of them do. There are
only 8,110,084 widowers in all India as against nearly 26,000,000
widows.

Of course there are many native homes in which widows are treated
kindly and receive the same attention and are allowed the same
pleasures as the other women of the family, but those who understand
India assert that they are exceptional, and hence asylums for those
who are treated badly are very much needed. This is a matter with
which the government cannot deal and the work is left entirely
to the Christian missionaries, who establish homes and teach
friendless widows to become self-supporting.

XXV

EDUCATION IN INDIA

Allahabad is the center of learning, the Athens in India, the
seat of a native university, the residence of many prominent men,
the headquarters of Protestant missionary work, the residence
of the governor of the United Provinces, Sir James La Touche,
one of the ablest and most progressive of the British officials
in India. Allahabad was once a city of great importance. In the
time of the Moguls it was the most strongly fortified place in
India, but the ancient citadel has been torn down by the British
and the palaces and temples it contained have been converted into
barracks, arsenals and storehouses. Nowhere in India have so
many beautiful structures been destroyed by official authority,
and great regret is frequently expressed. Allahabad was also a
religio