Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/262

246 neighbour. I made very light of the sin, and so we lived on for about six months. The knowledge no way interfered with my happiness. But soon came its punishment. The Brahmin cook, learning of it, besieged me, and threatened exposure when I disregarded his importunities. It is impossible to deny favours which are asked as a price for secrecy. Next year I presented my husband with an heir, who died in a few weeks. The old man himself died soon after.

"I now entered on a career of unbridled license. When inconveniently situated, I would organise pilgrimages to holy shrines, whither I would go in company of half a dozen wives and maidens, accompanied by two or three servants. Having fallen myself, I felt a kind of satisfaction in seeing others fall. I think I have this way ruined a hundred women."

Let me now give a few instances of the sad results of caste. A man being strictly forbidden to marry out of caste, and eligible girls being very few, he has to pass the best years of his life in low intrigues for the acquirement of money and the gratification of brute passions. He is nearly a wreck at the time of his marriage, and makes an indifferent guardian for what is his