Page:Sketches of some distinguished Indian women.djvu/17

Rh seem doubtful, for the merciful Government which has rescued her from a fiery death cannot save her from a life of oppression and misery. To be a widow, and more especially a childless or rather sonless widow, is to be the object not of sympathy and pity but of universal hatred and aversion. In the words of one, a Hindu widow herself, " Widowhood is throughout India regarded as the punishment for a horrible crime or crimes committed by the woman in some former existence upon earth. It is the child widow, or the childless young widow, upon whom in an especial manner falls the abuse and hatred of the community, as the greatest criminal upon whom Heaven's judgment has been pronounced." Again, "A widow is called an ' inauspicious thing'; if she appear on any occasion of rejoicing, she will bring ill-luck. If a man starting on a journey sees a widow on the road, he will postpone his departure rather than run the risk of neglecting so evil an omen." The relatives and neighbours of a young widow's husband are always ready to call her bad names, and to address her in abusive language at every opportunity. There is scarcely a day on which she is not cursed as the cause of their beloved friend's death. In short, the young widow's life is rendered intolerable in every way.

A widow cannot re-marry except at the risk of