WIFE LOST AS A BET.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1425, 10 November 1923, Page 2

WIFE LOST AS A BET.

WHEN HINDUS MAY GAMBI E.

There is one clay during the year upon which the Indian Government has decreed that Hindus may lawfully gamble. That day is Devali—the Day of Light, which is dedicated to the Hindu god Ram, in celebration if his coronation, and of this day the devotees of that religion take g'-eat advantage.

Huge sums, in relation to the wealth of the gamblers, are speculated, losers often finishing up minus money, house and everything. And on frequent occasions .in such circumstances the born gambler has lost one of his wives.

From sunset onwards, on this day, the native bazaars throughout India resemble fairyland, for outside the house or shop of every true Hindu are placed numerous little lamps of a very primitive construction. They consist merely of small shallow bowls, about the size of a salt-cellar, filled with oil in which a wick is floated.

The number of lamps varies with the financial standing of the householder, the wealthier natives displaying them by the hundred, According t,o the tradition, he who displays the greatest number of lights will become exceedingly rich, for on this night Lakshami, the goddess of wealth, is supposed to wander abroad and enter wherever there are sufficient lights to catch , her fancy. Another method of enticing the unsuspecting lady consists of placing in a bowl filled with milk and rice a cluster of pretty flowers. The Hindu believes that to present a firiend with flowers is to wish him or her happiness. Hence the offering of flowers to Lakshami.