Page:Hindu widow re-marriage and other tracts.djvu/13

 They have to keep fasts so often as really to starve themselves. In some places their heads are shaved. They are not allowed to take part in such ceremonies as are considered auspicious among married women, nor are they allowed to associate with married women on occasions of joy. In fact they are looked upon as objects of Divine curse and wrath. Sometimes elderly women of the deceased husbands' families curse them in words that they devoured their husbands, Often the burden of the entire household work is put on their shoulders and they are treated more as wretches than human beings. The real object of all this cruel treatment seems to be to make them feel their dejection and despondency so that physically their passions might always remain curbed and checked. It is really a living homicidal treatment.