n waiting some little time before answering your letter,
because I wanted time to think over your problem. As far as I can make
out, there is no way in the world of preventing a woman marrying her own
daughter to the gods at any age; but you can prosecute her if she does.
If you could get her into prison for marrying the elder girls, the
younger might be safe; but I don't think you can do anything directly
for her. She is not being 'unlawfully detained'; and even if she were,
all you could do would be to get her returned to her parents and
guardians, which would be worse than useless.

"The question is whether you can hope to get a conviction in the other
case.

"I don't see how you can. You can say in court that you saw the little
girls with their marriage symbol on, and that they said they had been
married to the god. The little girls will deny it all, and say they
never set eyes on you before. Moreover, I don't think the ordinary Court
would be satisfied without some other evidence of the fact of
dedication; and considering how everyone would work against you, I think
you would find it extraordinarily hard. The local police would be worse
than useless."

To every man his work: it appears to us that expert knowledge is
required, and ample means and leisure, if the expenditure involved is to
result in anything worth while; and a careful study of all available
information regarding prosecutions, convictions, and, I may add,
sentences, has convinced us, at least, of the futility of such attempts
from a missionary point of view: for even if convictions were certain,
_as long as the law hands the child back to its guardians after their
unfitness to guard it from the worst that can befall it has been
proved_, so long do we feel unable to rejoice exceedingly over even the
six months' rigorous imprisonment, which in more than one case has been
the legal interpretation of the phrase "up to a term of ten years,"
which is the penalty attached to this offence in the Indian Penal Code.

In this connection it may be well to quote a paragraph from the _Indian
Social Reformer_:--

"The Public Prosecutor at Madras applied for admission of a revision
petition against the order of the Sessions Judge, made in the following
circumstances:--

"One, S., a priest, was convicted by the first-class subdivisional
magistrate of having performed the ceremony of dedicating a young girl
in the Temple of N., and thereby committing an offence