Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/140

Rh shells, and some of coral; some of plain gold and some exquisitely engraved and set with diamonds and emeralds. Rings of various patterns she put on her fingers: one shaped like the mouth of a makara, and another which had a big emerald in the centre and a row of diamonds set round it. On her neck she wore many kinds of necklaces (which covered her bosom from the neck to the navel) : one of them was like a golden chain; another like a twisted cord; another was a string of beautiful beads, and another a string of pendant golden leaves. A splendid clasp, which covered the back of her neck, held the necklaces in their position. Her ear-rings were set alternately with large diamonds and sapphires. On her head she fastened a net-work of ornaments which exceeded in beauty all her other jewels.”

Women mixed freely though modestly in the business and amusements of social life. In towns and cities, women of the poor classes were employed as hawkers, vendors, and shopkeepers or as servants in rich households; and in the villages they worked in the fields and gardens along with men, and shared their hardships. The ladies of the higher classes were more confined to their homes, but they were not secluded from Society. From the queen downwards every woman visited the temples. During the evenings they came out on the terraces of their houses, and saw the scenes in the street: and o festive occasions, they joined the processions, and went out to invite their friends and relations. Owing to the freedom enjoyed by women, it was possible for young people to court each other before marriage. It was not considered improper for a young lady even to elope with her lover, provided they returned to their relations afterwards, and entered into a married life. Love, and not the greed of gold, ruled the court, the camp and the grove, in those days; and the behaviour of the sexes towards each other, among the Tamils, was far more polite and courteous than it is at the present day. It is no matter for wonder, therefore, that much of the poetry of this ancient period treats of love, and that rules for writing amatory poems were already in use. The courtship of young people was such an old and established custom with the Tamils