WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
The destruction of girls by the hands of their mothers is not sanctioned by religion; but public opinion and the law are not severe in regard to the practice. Many children of the female sex disappear; "they have been taken by wild animals." In 1870, three hundred girls from the town of Umritzar were carried away by wolves.[1]
"Let thy mother be to thee like unto a God." Notwithstanding, sorrow is the lot of the woman who is sterile, or who brings forth only girls. For her there is no adoration.
Child-marriage is another evil indicted by the Pundita Ramabai Sarasvati. This is one of the practices difficult to reconcile with the Hindu regard for the welfare of women. Dr. Coomaraswamy refers very briefly to the custom, and regrets that it still exists. I think I am right in saying that Miss Noble
- ↑ E. S. Hartland, in "Primitive Paternity," writes:—"In the Panjâb, Hindu women who lose a female child during infancy, or while it still sucks milk, take it into the jungle and put it in a sitting position under a tree. Sugar is put into its mouth and a corded roll of cotton between its fingers. Then the mother says in Panjâbi—
'Eat the sugar; spin the cotton;
Don't come back, but send a brother.'If on the following day it be found that the dogs or jackals have dragged the body towards the mother's house, she considers it a bad omen, saying: 'Ah! she is coming back—that means another girl.' But if it be dragged away from the home, she is glad, saying: 'The brother will come.'"
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