self
definitely to this gross evil; and the leading Tantraic books of this
cult are so filthy that they are not fit to be translated. In Bengal,
where the worship of Durgai, the wife of Siva, is dominant, the Hindus
themselves are beginning to protest against the lewdness, obscenity,
and licentiousness which prevail at their great Holi festival, which
is the annual festival of the goddess.

Another institution connected with the temple worship of India, and of
which Hindus ought to be heartily ashamed, is that of dancing-girls.
Little girls in their infancy are devoted and dedicated by their own
mothers to the temples. They are supposed to be married to the gods of
the temple, and are called "the servants of the gods." They dance in
attendance upon the gods, upon festival occasions, and are an inherent
part of the temple worship. But the sad thing about these women is
that their own mothers knew, when they dedicated them in infancy, that
they were binding them to a life of shame. For the dancing-girls are
the professional prostitutes of India. There are a host of these women
(twelve thousand in South India alone) who, without their own consent,
and in the sacred name of religion, have been handed over to this
life of shame, to corrupt and debase the youth of the land. Their life
is a loud cry against their mother-faith, which systematically devotes
them to destruction of soul and body. Some educated men of the land
denounce this as an evil which should be stopped. But the leaders of
the faith turn a deaf ear to all such cries.

7. The treatment of woman within Hinduism is worthy of attention.

Hinduism has never looked with kindness or consideration upon women.
It seems to have been its settled policy to treat them with contempt
and unkindness. The consequence is that the girl babe is never welcome
in the Hindu family. And from the cradle to the grave woman has no
independence or right within the pale of this faith. During childhood
she is in bondage to her father, during her marriage she must give
implicit obedience to her husband, and as a widow she remains the ward
of her sons.

Look at the disabilities under which the Hindu woman labours to-day.

She is held in ignorance. Only six Hindu women out of one thousand are
able to read and write. She has never been regarded as worthy of
education. Her ignorance has been regarded as her safety, and has
been the studied policy of Hinduism.

She has never been regarded