ladies; but we have nothing to do, and so we are accustomed to be idle,
and to talk foolishly. Do come again, and bring us books, and pictures,
and dolls."

You see what useless, wearisome lives the Hindoo _ladies_ lead. Now hear
what hard and wretched lives the _poor_ women lead. The wife of a poor
man rises from her mat before it is day, and by the light of a lamp spins
cotton for the family clothing. Next she feeds the children, and sweeps
the house and yard, and cleans the brass and stone vessels. Then she
washes the rice, bruises, and boils it. By this time it is ten o'clock,
when she goes with some other women to bathe in the river, or if there be
no river near, in a great tank of rain-water. While there, she often
makes a clay image of her god, and worships it with prayers, and bowings,
and offerings of fruit and flowers, for nearly an hour. On her return
home she prepares the curry for dinner: her kitchen is a clay furnace in
the yard, and there she boils the rice. When dinner is ready, she dares
not sit down with her husband to eat it: no, she places it respectfully
before his mat, and then retires to the yard. Her little boys eat with
their father; but her little girls dine with her upon the food that is
left.

It is not the busy life she leads that makes a poor woman unhappy: it is
the ill-treatment she endures. A kind word is seldom spoken to her: but a
hard blow is often given. Her own boys are encouraged to insult her
because she is only a woman. She is taught to worship her husband as a
god, however bad he may be. There is a proverb which shows how much women
are despised in India. "How can you place the black rice-pot beside the
golden spice-box!" By the rice-box a woman is meant: by the spice-box a
man: and the meaning of the proverb is that a wife is unworthy to sit at
the same table with her husband.