Indian Customs.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 867, 12 October 1888, Page 5

Indian Customs.

A brutal charge of cruelty, illustrative of the" evils of child-marriage (The Times states) is under investigation by the chief magistrate of Calcutta. . The complainant is a Hindoo - girl aged 11. She states that she has been living with her husband for the last eighteen months, that her husband has a mother and his brother living in the same house, that Bhe had to do all the cooking and the household work, and that her mother-in-law frequently beat and ill-used her. On June 22 she accused ner of using too much salt in a dish that she was cooking. Hat mother-in-law abused her all day, and threatened that she should be branded. At ten o’clock that night her husband, his brother, and her mother-in-law, threw her down, and the man bound and gagged her, while the woman branded her with an iron ladle which she heated in the fire. She was branded three times on the cheek, also on the legs and arms. Four days later she managed to get away and sought her mother’s protection. The doctor who had examined the child’s injuries deposed that he had no hesitation in saying the burns were caused by branding with a red-hot iron. The girl alleged that she had been cruelly treated ever since she had asked the reason as to the visit of a certain Mahommedan. The family hold a respectable position.