Page:The Land of the Veda.djvu/492

482 the curtains, within the inclosure which surrounds her mother's home, and her education commences.

What, then, is the education, so called, which the betrothed wife in her Hindoo home receives during her five or six years of training for her future life? Her mother is her sole instructor. But she can teach no more than she herself knows; that, however, she fully communicates. We may epitomize the young lady's education, the entire curriculum of it, under four heads, cooking, domestic service, religion, and their peculiar female literature.

The first qualification is to cook, not only well, but appropriately. Each caste has its own ordinances, and these are very minute and particular as to the kinds of food that may be eaten, their mode of preparation and serving, and the care required to preserve the cooking utensils from all contact with things or persons whose touch would pollute them. In fact, caste is preserved in the matter of food more carefully than in any thing else. A violation of her duty here would involve consequences at which she is taught to shudder. The health and life of her husband may be forfeited by an unintentional neglect of hers. Even where wealth and high position may excuse her from the drudgery of preparation, the Hindoo wife is not released from the careful superintendence of this vital duty. We in this western world have little idea of the importance attached to it there, where, indeed, it may be truly said that their “kingdom of God is meat and drink,” and where the Christian freedom of the text, “Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving,” is a doctrine unknown and a liberty unenjoyed. By the little lady long, weary months are thus employed in the acquirement of these distinctions and customs.

Woman, ignorant though she be, is the depository of the system of Hindustanee heathenism. She was taught it orally by her mother in girlhood. In her memory are treasured up the “slokes” of her religion—the verses of the Shasters which illustrate the popular idolatry. She has learned the histories of her gods and the dialogues of her mythological legends, and with these she is