WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
band is conspicuous for his docility and patience. There are "few happier households than Indian ones," says Mrs. Steel. Among the Jat and the Sikh villagers a charming camaraderie prevails between men and women. This is often the case where the sexes work side by side on an equality.
Unkindness to children is hardly known. We shall note that this virtue of parental love is almost universal in Eastern countries. Divorce is practically unknown. To the Hindus marriage is a grave and sacred union. In wedlock the husband is "a perfect prey to his womenfolk, at any rate for some years." Surely this statement should be considered by the critics of Indian marriage before they lament "the degraded position of our Indian sisters."
"We in the West," writes Mrs. Steel, "are talking of discarding marriage, but played in Eastern fashion marriage has guarded much that woman holds most dear."
Even the missionaries are bound to acknowledge that sexual morality is high in India. Mrs. Steel asserts that the standard of national morality is "far higher in India than it is in England." In Persia and in India the code of sex morals in ancient times was almost cruel in its severity. The tradition still lives. It is true that mercenary commerce of the sexes is practised in the towns, but in a far less
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