Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 385

MODEST DEMEANOUR
At no period
of her life
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can she consider herself her own
mistress.
She must always be attentive and diligent in all her
domestic duties she should be ever watchful over her
temper, never covetous of the goods of others, never
quarrelsome with her neighbours, never neglectful of work
without her husband's permission, and always calm in her
conduct and deportment.
Should she see anything which she is desirous of pos-
sessing, she must not seek to acquire it without the consent
If her husband receives the visit of
of her husband.
a stranger, she shall retire with bent head and shall con-
tinue her work without paying the least attention to him.
She must concentrate her thoughts on her husband only,
and must never look another man in the face. In acting
thus, she will win the praise of everybody.
Should any man make proposals to her, and endeavour
to seduce her by offering her rich clothes or jewels of great
value, by the gods let her take good care not to lend an
ear to him, let her hasten to flee from him.
If her husband laugh, she must laugh
if he be sad,
she must be sad
if he weep, she must weep
if he ask
questions, she must answer.
Thus will she give proofs of
her good disposition.
She must take heed not to remark that another man is
young, handsome, or well proportioned, and, above all, she
must not speak to him.
Such modest demeanour will
secure for her the reputation of a faithful spouse.
It shall even be the same with her who, seeing before
her the most beautiful gods, shall regard them disdainfully
and as though they were not worthy of comparison with
her husband.
A wife must eat only after her husband has had his fill.
If the latter fast, she shall fast too
if he touch not food,
she also shall not touch it
if he be in affliction, she shall
be so too if he be cheerful, she shall share his joy. A
good wife should be less devoted to her sons, or to her
grandsons, or to her jewels than to her husband. She
must, on the death of her husband, allow herself to be burnt
alive on the same funeral pyre
then everybody will praise
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her virtue.