lemnities taking
place. In Rumzaun they have scruples, though not equal to those which they
entertain against fulfilling the contract in Mahurrum, the month of
mourning.

Marriage settlements are not known in Mussulmaun society. All contracts
are made by word of mouth; and to their credit, honourable reliance is
usually followed by honourable fulfilment of agreements. The husband is
expected to be satisfied with whatever portion of his wife's fortune the
friends may deem consistent or prudent to grant with their daughter. The
wife is at liberty to keep under her own control any separate sum or
allowance her parents may be pleased to give her, over and above the
marriage portion granted to the husband with his wife.[2]

The husband rarely knows the value of his wife's private property unless,
as sometimes happens, the couple in after years have perfect confidence in
each other, and make no separate interests in worldly matters.
Occasionally, when the married couple have not lived happily together, the
wife has been known to bury her cash secretly; and perhaps she may die
without disclosing the secret of her treasure to any one.

In India the practice of burying treasure is very common with females,
particularly in villages, or where there are fears entertained of robbers.
There is no difficulty in burying cash or other treasure, where the ground
floors of the houses are merely beaten earth--boarded floors, indeed, are
never seen in Hindoostaun--in the houses of the first classes of Natives
they sometimes have them bricked and plastered, or paved with marble.
During the rainy season I have sometimes observed the wooden tuckht[3] (a
portable platform) in use with aged or delicate females, on which they
make their seats from fear of the damp from the mud floor; but they
complain that these accommodations are not half so comfortable as their
ordinary seat.

The division of personal property between married people has the effect of
rendering the wife much more independent than the married lady of other
countries. The plan is a judicious one in the existing state of Mussulmaun
society, for since the husband could at his pleasure add other wives, the
whole property of the first wife might be squandered on these additions.
In the middling classes of society, and where the husband is a religious
person, this division of property is not so strictly maintained; yet every
wife has the privilege, if she chooses to exercise it, of