THE CHILD-MARRIAGE INIQUITY IN INDIA.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 10646, 28 June 1897, Page 4

THE CHILD-MARRIAGE INIQUITY IN INDIA.

A missionary ot the Chnrch of England Zenana Soolety heard Boreanm lasniDg irnm a honee In Krlahnagar. She aßked a man standing at the door what was the matter, It> wbb only a little bow lately arrived In the zenana. She asked permission to enter, and was led into tbe women's apartments, In the dim light ■he oonld just discern a email heap In the corner, and plaintive moans told her that It was something living, She drew near and Bpoke, and a woe-begone faoe appeared, to be Instantly hidden in teiror at the sight of a fair oomplexloned Englishwoman, By degrees the soand ot a gentle voice speaking her own language and tbe sight ot a ecrup-book insplrod cariosity and confidence. The heap became more and more animated as one plotare after another was turned over before her 6yee. "What made yon eoretun ? " tbe lady asked. " They beat me," the child replied, and she drew np her sash, and dhclosed wales, whlca I showed that she had hud ample excuse. "Why did they beat yon?" "Beoansel ctied for my mother," And the face puckered afresh with the recolleotion of lOBt love and care. Acd now that her ■new friend, whose tenderness bad dried her tears, mast leave her, what moil she dv? Before going away the Englishwoman pleaded with the mother-in law not to pnnteh tbe young wife again for the same offence, "Itis so natural that a child should cry for her mother; 1 ' nbe nrged, A emits wai the only response, t'hta was the young bride'j honeymoon, and It was nob an ancommoa beginning of wedded life. The authoresß, " A.L.0.E." — a missionary of the same society in the Punjab— met with a little pnpll tee day after her arrival in her haeband's zenana. The child crept into her white> haired teacher's armt, her tearfnl face and heaving frame mutely appealing tor sympathy and help. The gentle old lady held her in a loving embrace; bnt stronger arms were needed to protect a yonng bow from oppressive custom. It Is herd to find a bright tide to the piotare of zenana life. The weary monotony is seldom broken, Even domeßlio duties are beneath the dignity of a very high-caste wife. She smokes, hhe sleeps, she chtws, she plaits her :-a;i-, sbe counts her jjweiu ; at lest sbe dies, without bopo or comfort, "lehall Bpeud &H my life in this cp.vrow room,' 1 "bid one yonng wife bitterly ; " tUen I shell dio, and they will put me into a narto* grave, and (bat wiu be the end of j

me." Another, who had begun to realise that there was a fair world outside the four walls of her prison, whloh blio oonld enjoy if' only she were allowed, looked with Uqnld eyes Into the faoe of an English lady visitor and inquired. " Why are we so different from that ? You are like that bird," she continued, pointing to a dove whloh flaw past the window above her. "You are like that bird flying toward heaven ; we are like the same bird, shut np In a cage, with Kb wings dipped." Seven years ago a little girl of nine years old was seen on the parapet of a honse in Bombay. A policeman, notic Ing that she seemed inclined to throw herself down into the street, entered, and foand the re»son why her life had become too heavy a burden to bear. Her husband, a man of 47, who had been already married fourteen timeß, had bought her from her father for fourteen rupees a month. He had baaten her, nnd had threatened to kill her If she failed to untie a knot in his balr within five days. Tbe ose was tried, but as there was not sufficient evidence to prove habitual oruelty, was eventually dismissed, It was reported In the Press, with an indlgnent protest against the "Childmarriage Inlqnlty." Itnoglnatiou fills in the dark outlines of this plotnre with still darker shading, and truces In tbe book* grnnnd thn phous ot fourteen miserable victims. It in easy to think of tbe young wife, her soft little fingcrß, trembling and clumsy from fright, as eho tries on pain of death, to fulfil the task her lord and protector has set her. Perhaps tho story of Bluebeard Is easy to credit.