as the men are concerned; but with the
women it is quite different.

Only the nautches--dancing girls consecrated to gods, and living
in temples--can be said to be free and happy. Their occupation is
hereditary, but they are vestals and daughters of vestals, however
strange this may sound to a European ear. But the notions of the Hindus,
especially on questions of morality, are quite independent, and even
anti-Western, if I may use this expression. No one is more severe
and exacting in the questions of feminine honor and chastity; but the
Brahmans proved to be more cunning than even the Roman augurs. Rhea
Sylvia, for instance, the mother of Romulus and Remus, was buried alive
by the ancient Romans, in spite of the god Mars taking an active part in
her faux pas. Numa and Tiberius took exceedingly good care that the good
morals of their priestesses should not become merely nominal. But the
vestals on the banks of the Ganges and the Indus understand the question
differently from those on the banks of the Tiber. The intimacy of the
nautch-girls with the gods, which is generally accepted, cleanses them
from every sin and makes them in every one's eyes irreproachable
and infallible. A nautcha cannot sin, in spite of the crowd of the
"celestial musicians" who swarm in every pagoda, in the form of
baby-vestals and their little brothers. No virtuous Roman matron was
ever so respected as the pretty little nautcha. This great reverence
for the happy "brides of the gods" is especially striking in the purely
native towns of Central India, where the population has preserved intact
their blind faith in the Brahmans.

Every nautcha can read, and receives the highest Hindu education. They
all read and write in Sanskrit, and study the best literature of ancient
India, and her six chief philosophies, but especially music, singing and
dancing. Besides these "godborn" priestesses of the pagodas, there are
also public nautches, who, like the Egyptian almeas, are within the
reach of ordinary mortals, not only of gods; they also are in most cases
women of a certain culture.

But the fate of an honest woman of Hindostan is quite different; and a
bitter and incredibly unjust fate it is. The life of a thoroughly good
woman, especially if she happens to possess warm faith and unshaken
piety, is simply a long chain of fatal misfortunes. And the higher her
family and social position, the more wretched is her life. Married women
are so afraid of