we should witness a Brahmanical wedding ceremony. Needless to say,
we jumped at this. The ceremonies of betrothal and marriage have not
changed in India during the last two millenniums at least. They are
performed according to the directions of Manu, and the old theme has
no new variations. India's religious rites have crystallized long ago.
Whoever has seen a Hindu wedding in 1879, saw it as it was celebrated in
ancient Aryavarta many centuries ago.----

A few days before we left Bombay we read in a small local newspaper two
announcements of marriages: the first the marriage of a Brahman heiress,
the second of a daughter of the fire-worshipers. The first announcement
was something to the following effect: "The family of Bimbay Mavlankar,
etc., etc., are preparing for a happy event. This respectable member
of our community, unlike the rest of the less fortunate Brahmans of
his caste, has found a husband for his grand-daughter in a rich Gujerat
family of the same caste. The little Rama-bai is already five, her
future husband is seven. The wedding is to take place in two months and
promises to be brilliant."

The second announcement referred to an accomplished fact. It appeared
in a Parsi paper, which strongly insists on the necessity of giving up
"disgusting superannuated customs," and especially the early marriage.
It justly ridiculed a certain Gujerati newspaper, which had just
described in very pompous expressions a recent wedding ceremony in
Poona. The bridegroom, who had just entered his sixth year "pressed to
his heart a blushing bride of two and a half!" The usual answers of this
couple entering into matrimony proved so indistinct that the Mobed had
to address the questions to their parents: "Are you willing to have him
for your lawful husband, O daughter of Zaratushta?" and "Are you willing
to be her husband, O son of Zoroaster?" "Everything went as well as it
could be expected," continued the newspaper; "the bridegroom was led out
of the room by the hand, and the bride, who was carried away in arms,
greeted the guests, not with smiles, but with a tremendous howl, which
made her forget the existence of such a thing as a pocket-handkerchief,
and remember only her feeding-bottle; for the latter article she asked
repeatedly, half choked with sobs, and throttled with the weight of the
family diamonds. Taking it all in all, it was a Parsi marriage, which
shows the progress of our speedily developing nation with