[10] It may not be superfluous to remind the English
reader, that, according to Hindoo ideas, there is no
disgrace like that of possessing an unmarried daughter.
Hence the practice, among the Rajpoots and adjacent
peoples, of destroying the female infants, to avoid it.

[11] Intending, of course, a son. Unfortunately he employed
a word of indeterminate gender: hence the lamentable
_denouement_. For in ancient India, as in ancient Rome, the
_spoken word_, the letter, determined everything.

[12] Nothing in Hindoo mythology is more absurd than the
implacable fury of the most holy men for the most trifling
slights, unless it be the accuracy with which their most
dreadful imprecations are literally fulfilled. This was, I
believe, characteristic also of the saints of Erin.

[13] An English lady having called, not long ago, at the
house of a Hindoo lady, to enquire how she was, after an
interesting event, and _what was the result_, received for
answer: Alas, _memsahib, nothing at all_: a girl. Had she
been a partisan of "woman's rights," she would probably
never have recovered from the shock.

[14] A play on words, not transferable to English.

[15] It is a very bad omen, in India, for a vulture to
settle on a house.