WIDOWS SELDOM SEDUCED 355
by ill-informed writers, do not succeed in winning over women of the better class so easily as in many other countries where the lawful union of the two sexes is not beset with so many obstacles. Besides, even if we refuse to believe that young widows possess in themselves sufficient strength of will to resist seduction, there are many other obstacles beyond their own control, which also serve as so many bulwarks to their modesty. Chief among such obstacles must be reckoned the diligent watchfulness exercised over them by their
parents; the severity of the convenances which forbid any
kind of familiar intercourse between men and women; the very heavy punishments which follow even the most trivial
lapses; and, finally, the mere disgrace, which in India,
above all countries of the world, entails the most tremendous penalties on the person detected in an indiscretion l.
CHAPTER XIX
The Custom which at times obliges Widows to allow themselves to be burnt alive on the Funeral Pyre of their Deceased Husbands.
Although the ancient and barbarous custom which imposes the duty on widows of sacrificing themselves voluntarily on the funeral pyre of their husbands has not been expressly abolished, it is much more rare nowadays than formerly, especially in the southern parts of the Peninsula. In the North of India and in the provinces bordering on the Ganges, however, women are only too frequently seen offering themselves as victims of this horrid superstition, and, either through motives of vanity or through a spirit of blind enthusiasm, giving themselves
up to a death which is as cruel as it is foolish.
The Mahomedan rulers never tolerated this horrible
practice in the provinces subject to them; but, notwithstanding their prohibition, wretched fanatics have more
1
The social reformers of the present day are doing all that they can to encourage the remarriage of virgin widows, those unhappy girls who, married before they come of age, become widows before cohabitation with their husbands is possible. So far, however, the success which these reformers have met with is extremely small, and those who brave caste custom in this respect are invariably outcasted. Ed.