flesh of his daughter-in-law with a heated iron, and when this is known, efforts will probably be made by right hearted Englishmen to discourage child-marriage and blot out of existence an abomination from the earth. The Hindoo widow marriage-party is the best that we know to begin the work : the members of that party should be recognised, encouraged, promoted, and pointed out as men worthy of being recognized by those who regard women as worthy of all respect, all honour and all affection."
After reading this thrilling tale, who can be so hardhearted as not to feel pity for the unfortunate daughter-in-law, and be not convinced of the follies and sins of our misguided people concerning their domestic affairs. The above is not a very unusual case. Similar occurrences of more or less enormity are not rare in Gujarat. We not unoften hear revolting stories of wife-beating even among the upper classes. Sometimes, though rarely, death results from such brutalities. A kick thoughtlessly administered by a wicked youth to his tender young wife in the abdomen while pregnant was said to have been the cause of her death which took place after a lingering sickness. Such cases very rarely come to the notice of the Magistrate and his policemen. It is seldom possible to bring to light and legally prove such crimes. In the Poona case the guilty parties were rightly punished. Those monsters, the mother-in-law, and the father-in-law got 6 months' and the husband for months' rigorous imprisonment.
Many mothers-in-law do not take care of the health of their daughters-in-law. What wonder if the latter die from such neglect? When they become sick, who is to care for them and procure medical assistance ? The boy-husband cannot even speak with her except at night time in the bedroom, and in many cases he does not know what his duties are towards his wife. The mothers-in-law consider them as feigning sickness. I have known cases in which they were so cruel as to prevent the parents of the girls from calling in the aid of competent doctors. Will it be wrong then to say that our society is rotten at the very core ? Can we enjoy real social happiness, while such a state of things lasts? Can virtue flourish among us when the mother of our children has to suffer such miseries and degradation, and to inflict the same when she herself becomes mother-in-law ? Our
