OUTWARD PROPRIETY 313
render these iniquities revolting and execrable, that alone
would be sufficient to ensure our love and respect for it.
It may seem incredible, after what I have just said,
when I add that there is no country in the world where greater attention is paid to what may be described as outward propriety. What we call love-making is utterly unknown amongst the Hindus. The playful sallies, the
silly jokes, the perpetual compliments, and the eager and unlimited display of attention in which our youths are so profuse would be looked upon as insults by any Hindu lady, even the least chaste, that is, if they were offered to her in public. Even if a husband indulged in any familiarities with his own wife it would be considered ridiculous and in bad taste. To inquire after a man ' s
wife, too, is an unpardonable breach of good manners; and when one is visiting a friend one must be careful
never to speak to the ladies of the house \
Thus it is that here below mankind seems incapable of preserving the happy medium. For our part we exceed in one direction by giving way to undue familiarity with persons of the opposite sex; while the Hindus for their part err on the side of reserve. The extreme susceptibility of the latter in this respect is due to the opinion they hold that no mark of affection between man and woman can be either innocent or disinterested. If a European lady is seen taking a gentleman ' s arm, even though he may profess the profoundest respect for her, nothing
would persuade a Hindu that she was not his mistress.
These strict principles of etiquette are instilled into the mind of a Hindu woman from her early youth, and, owing to the severity with which lapses from them are treated in some castes, indiscretions are far less frequent than one would imagine to be the case, considering how early the licentious habits of Hindu men are formed. Whatever may be said to the contrary, Hindu women are naturally chaste.
To cite a few examples of unseemly conduct, a few lapses attributable to human frailty, is no proof of their want of chastity as a body; just as it is no proof to cite the shameless conduct of those poor wretches, prostitutes by birth
1
In the case of relatives and intimate friends no such objection is taken. Ed.