e Indian epics (I mean the Sanskrit epic), there is
much more than stories. There are also chapters of moral instruction of a
very curious kind--chapters about conduct, the conduct of the parents, the
conduct of the children, the conduct of the husband, the conduct of the
bride. The instructions to the bride are contained in the twenty-third
Rune; there are altogether fifty Runes in the book. This appears to me
likely to interest you, for it is written in relation to a family system
not at all like the family system of the rest of Europe. I think you will
find in it not a little that may remind you of Chinese teaching on the
same subject--the conduct of the daughter-in-law. But there are of course
many differences, and the most pleasing difference is the tone of great
tenderness in which the instructions are given. Let us quote some of them:

"O young bride, O my young sister, O my well beloved and beautiful young
flower, listen to the words which I am going to speak to you, harken to
the lesson which I am going to teach you. You are going now very far away
from us, O beautiful flower!--you are going to take a long journey, O my
wild-strawberry fruit! you are about to fly away from us, O most delicate
down! you are about to leave us forever, O velvet tissue--far away from
this habitation you must go, far away from this beautiful house, to enter
another house, to enter into a strange family. And in that strange house
your position will be very different. There you will have to walk about
with care, to conduct yourself with prudence, to conduct yourself with
thoughtfulness. There you will not be able, as in the house of your
father, as in the dwelling of your mother, to run about where you please,
to run singing through the valleys, to warhle out your songs upon the
roadway.

"New habits you must now learn, and forget all the old. You must abandon
the love of your father and content yourself with the love of your
father-in-law; you must bow very low, you must learn to be generous in the
use of courteous words. You must give up old habits and form new ones; you
must resign the love of your mother and content yourself with the love of
your step-mother: lower must you bow, and you must learn to be lavish in
the use of kindly words.

"New habits you must learn and forget the old: you must leave behind you
the friendship of your brother, and content yourself with the friendship
of your brother-in-law; you must bow lower than