and in no country is the slavery in which she lives, at once so
systematic, refined, and complete as it is in India, where the lawgiver
and the priest are one. The oppressive custom of life-long guardianship
is expressly ordained. By a girl, or by a woman advanced in years,
nothing must be done, even in her own dwelling-place, according to her
mere pleasure. In childhood must a female be dependent on her father, in
youth on her husband; her lord being dead, on her sons; if she have no
sons, on the near kinsman of her husband; if he left no kinsman, on
those of her father; if she have no parental kinsman, on the sovereign.
A woman must never seek independence."[D] Not permitted to have any
discretionary power over her own actions at any period of her life, but
held in every respect subject to the will of her husband, or some other
male guardian, she is nevertheless to be unswervingly faithful to her
lord while he lives; and no matter how cruelly he may have treated her,
she is loaded with contumely, reproach, and scorn, if she refuses to lay
herself upon the funeral pile, and in the flames pass into another state
of being, to do honor to him who through life had been an unrelenting
tyrant. Knowing the obloquy which attaches itself to the widow who
recoils from such a fearful death-bed, and ignorant, too, of the "better
way," the unfortunate creature generally yields to the pressure brought
to bear upon her, and terminates a miserable life by an awful death; her
horrid shrieks, while burning, mingling with the clamor of sounds
raised to drown them by the heartless throng of spectators, and yet
sometimes rising with distressing distinctness above them. When the wife
of a Hindoo dies, does he sacrifice himself upon a funeral pile, in
order to honor her in another state of existence? By no means. His
precious body can not be committed to the flames; they are too hot for
his manly courage. He burns her corpse with what are termed appropriate
offerings; and, if so disposed, adds a new wife to his household, thus
soothing his sorrow.