ted widowhood.
For, the parents of the boy sincerely believe that it is her evil star
which has killed the boy whose destiny was blended with her own. And
henceforth she is regarded, not only by the parents concerned, but by
society in general, as an accursed person, hated for what has happened to
her husband, and also a creature to be shunned. Her presence must not be
allowed on any festive occasion, lest its evil influence bring sorrow and
death to others. Thus a child of four or five years may suddenly have her
prospects blasted, her life embittered and her company shunned by the
whole world, with none to befriend, to cheer or to comfort her. There are
two millions of such sad and injured ones in India today. Their cry goes
up to God and to man in inarticulate appeal for relief and redress against
a social custom and a religious rule which consigns them, in their time of
greatest innocency, to a life which is worse than death itself and which
robs them of the protection, love and sympathy which the whole economy of
heaven and earth should guarantee to them.

Coupled with this terrible fact is the other, that woman _must_ marry in
India _anyhow_. No disgrace and misfortune can befall a woman, according
to Hindu ideas, equal to that of spending her whole life in maidenhood.
This, of course, is connected with the idea that she has no social status
or religious destiny apart from man. Hence it is that a host of loving
parents, who are unable to find a suitable match for their daughters,
rather than leave them unmarried, stupidly join them in wedlock to
_professional_ bridegrooms. There is, in Bengal, today, a division of the
Brahman caste whose men are professional purveyors to this silly but
prevalent superstition. They are prepared to marry any number of girls at
remunerative rates. And thus they acquire a fair income. Each of these men
have scores of such wives and entertains the proud satisfaction,
doubtless, that he is bestowing a favour upon a benighted community by
coupling his name in wedlock with unfortunate girls who otherwise would be
without a name or hope among men! A state of society which renders such a
condition of things possible is not only a disgrace to any community, it
is a monstrous evil against the womanhood of that community. Is it any
wonder, then, that so many of the women of India, under these
circumstances, should commit suicide? Is it strange that a wife, in such a
land, should find it best to