Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 499

A SAMARADHANAM INCIDENT 459 and when she saw her daughter-in-law completely shorn, she stood motionless and dumbfounded for a moment, and then, flying into a fit of anger, overwhelmed me with curses and insults, which I bore patiently without uttering a word, for I soon began to feel that I richly deserved them. The villain of a barber, in his turn, took a mischievous pleasure in telling everybody of the incident, until I became Slanderous people, improving the general laughing-stock. on his story, were not slow in insinuating that the object of my having my wife's head shaved was to punish her for her infidelity. Crowds gathered about the door of my house, and even an ass was brought to carry the supposed adulteress through the streets in the manner usual on such occasions. ' report of the affair soon reached the ears of my wife's relatives, who hastened to inquire what was the matter. You can easily imagine the terrible hubbub and trouble they made at the sight of their unfortunate daughter. They immediately took her away with them, travelling at A night that she might be spared the shame of being exposed to public view in so humiliating a condition, and they kept her for four years without coming to terms of any kind with me, though at length they restored her to me. This unfortunate incident made me miss the samara- dhanam, for which I had been preparing by a three days' fast. I was all the more chagrined to find afterwards that it was a most sumptuous feast, and that ghee, among other good things, had been profusely served. A fortnight after- wards another samaradhanam was announced, which I had the imprudence to attend. I was greeted with howls from more than eight hundred Brahmins who had assembled ' there, and lishing the who, seizing name me by force, insisted of the accomplice of my on my pub- wife's guilt, in order that he might be prosecuted and punished according to the rigid rules of the caste. I solemnly asserted that I was myself the guilty party, and explained to them all the true motive that induced me to act in such a manner. My hearers were immensely surprised at what I told them, and, looking at each other, at last exclaimed "Is it possible that any married woman who has not violated This the laws of honour should have her head shaved 1 :