Page:Walter Matthew Gallichan - Women under Polygamy (1914).djvu/69

 instead the unspeakable blessedness of offering worship?"

Do the men of India abuse this worship and the humility on the part of their wives? The author of "The Web of Indian Life" declares very insistently that they do not. A Hindu husband appears to be as admirable in the performance of all his conjugal obligations as his lovingly submissive spouse. Miss Noble reiterates again and again the blessedness of the Hindu woman's position in the home, until we are feign to believe that she is the happiest and most fortunate woman in the world.

Very little is said concerning polygamy. We read that a man may contract a second marriage if his wife remains sterile after the end of seven years, and that the first wife is by no means averse to this arrangement. Polygamy, according to Miss Noble, is rather rare in Hindu society. She has very little to say upon the question of the marriage of children to adult men.

"The courtesy of husbands to their wives is quite unfailing amongst Hindus," writes Miss Noble. Thou shalt not strike a woman even with a flower,' is the proverb. His wife's desire for companionship on a journey is the first claim on a man. And it is very touching to notice how, as years go on, he leans more and more to the habit of addressing her as 'O, thou mother of our son!' and presenting her to new-