munity is composed, the ladies of different ranks and degrees, who often see themselves neglected for their servants and slaves, it is wonderful how the whole can be managed without continual discord and rebellion. Quarrelling must, in too many instances, be the resource against ennui, and though a great, portion of authority is always vested in the hands of one person, the difficulty of maintaining peace cannot fail to be very great.

The Hindoos, as well as the Moslems, seem to admit that there can only be one lawful wife, who is nearly always chosen from the husband's peculiar caste, and is considered the principal and superior of their houses. But this rule is not universal; many of the Rajpoot and other tribes take wives from, inferior castes, and destroy all the female offspring of the union: others, not guilty of this barbarity, will espouse as many women as they can afford to maintain in the splendour suited to their rank, and, although the same cere monies are not gone through as upon the first marriage, the strongest-minded, cleverest, or most cunning, will gain the ascendancy, and be enabled to tyrannize over the other women. When the first wife does not bring children, it is esteemed lawful to take a second; but there are some wise men who, perceiv ing the evils resulting from polygamy, are content to go childless to their graves, rather than disturb the harmony of their households by admitting a plurality of wives. It sometimes happens that so strong an attachment is formed by the husband to his first choice, that he does not desire to take a second, and perhaps only consents to it at the urgent solicitation of his wife, who desires to retire upon the pension of her rank, while other women, who have flattered themselves that they shall always exclusively retain the affections of their husbands, have, upon the disappointment of this hope, either murdered their rivals, or committed suicide, atte vre noju zɛe blyow

The affairs of the zenana are sometimes managed by the wife, and sometimes by the mother of the master of the family, who, notwithstanding his boasted pre-eminence, is often nothing more than a mere cipher, the puppet of those whom he affects to despise. The ladies of the family usually exercise almost entire authority over the marriages of the young people belonging to it, as they can always contrive to break off any negociation which may be displeasing to them. The dull monotony of their lives leads them to multiply the details, and insist upon the observance of a system of etiquette, which would be in the highest degree irksome and disagreeable to persons possessing a greater number of mental resources. Nothing can be more wearisome than a recapitulation, of the ceremonies which take place both at Hindoo and Mohammedan marriages, and it seems surprising that all the parties concerned do not die of fatigue long before they can be completed; but, in the absence of other me thods of obtaining amusement, and other sources of interest, events of this description are looked forward to with the utmost delight. The zenanas of both houses, that of the bridegroom and the bride, are the chief scenes in which the wedding pageants are exhibited, and if the youth upon his first introduction should fail to conciliate the lady and her companions, there will not be much chance for the enjoyment of connubial happiness.

As it has been before remarked, notwithstanding the pains which Asiatics take to enslave and immure their women, they themselves have been obliged to acknowledge that the means are inadequate to the end; at last, they are. compelled to trust in the existence of a virtuous principle for the security of the honour placed in the keeping of its best guardian. Women cannot be prevented from visiting each other; it would seem too great a hardship to deprive them of the solace of female society. Upon these occasions, the scrupulous

delicacy due to the guest, demands that the male portion of the family should be rigidly secluded from the zenana: a pair of slippers, placed at the entrance of the sacred apartments, acts as a talisman; no unprivileged person dare enter, and as the visit is sometimes protracted during several days, the ladies must be left entirely at their own discretion, for, should they desire to admit a lover, there would be very little difficulty in adding him to the party.", There is not much accommodation wanted for the reception of guests, in a country in which the company are content to sleep on mats spread on the floor, and where at a banquet a dozen or two will not scruple to eat with their fingers out of the same dish. Upon these occasions, the quadrangle or court-yard is formed into a reception-hall, by means of an awning raised over the whole. Nothing, however, can appear more ill-adapted to the climate of India than the style of the buildings, which for the most part are not calculated to keep out the heat, the wind, or the rain, and where, in many instances, a multitude of women are huddled together in a very narrow space.

In addition to the opportunities afforded by visits, going to the bath, or to the temple, the peculiar costume, adopted by Asiatic females, offers many facilities to those who desire to wander beyond their prison walls. When covered from head to foot by the thick coarse veil worn by the lower orders, it would be impossible to distinguish a lady from the wife of the meanest arti zan, and, thus disguised, nothing is more easy than to walk unquestioned through the open streets. Although the crowd is chiefly composed of men, numbers of respectable women being compelled to go abroad upon their own or their husband's affairs, their appearance does not excite remark, nor are they subject to insult from men, who are well aware of the penalty which they would pay upon any attempt to remove the shrouding veil. These privileges are triumphantly brought forward by native and other writers, in their anxiety to prove that Asiatic women enjoy, if possible, a greater degree of liberty than falls to the lot of those who live amongst a less jealous community; but such liberty can only be valuable to women who desire to make an ill-use of it, and cannot compensate for the denial of the just right of exercising their own judgment. That [many, the majority perhaps, are satisfied with their condition, is a truth which cannot be disputed; but it by no means follows that either they themselves, or their male relatives, are the happier, certainly not the better, in a moral point of view, for their slavish submission to the will of their masters. It is only necessary to describe the beau idéal of female excellence, which Asiatic gentlemen have formed, to shew the monstrous vice which the acquiescence of the women in such a model would tend to foster. According to the prevailing notion, a truly amiable woman is one, who will not only live in peace and quiet with all the wives and mistresses whom her husband may choose to introduce into the zenana, but condescend to court his favour by facilitating their entrance; she must be utterly without jealousy, pride, or self-respect, and remain content with the modicum of affection which may chance to fall to her lot, while enduring a series of trials which would serve to prove the story of Griselda to be no fable. Like her, perhaps, she must submit to the murder of her children, the female portion of them at least. In every Mohammedan family, the birth of an infant of the weaker sex is considered a misfortune; the gloom that prevails in the household forms a certain indication that the hopes of the parents have been disappointed; none scruple to say that it is more honourable to have sons than daughters, and, although their religion will not sanction their putting the unhappy creatures to death, they allow the females to run all the chances of neglect. Hindoos are

far less scrupulous; many tribes and castes make it a practice to kill all the female infants born in their families. They have rather a circumlocutory mode of stating the fact, only admitting at first, when the question is put to them, that they do not rear daughters, and confessing, when hard pressed," that they are either drowned in a vessel of milk, or soothed to their eternal sleep by a dose of laudanum.' Women, in India, being taught to excuse any fault they may commit, on the plea of their natural inferiority, it is not so difficult as we might suppose, to induce them to consent to the rooting up of an unpros fitable weed, by the destruction of their infant daughters!" The mother's hand may be spared the task, but the office is delegated to a female; and thus the sum of degradation is completed. The great extent to which this frightful practice is carried on throughout India would surprise those who are unacquainted with the official documents concerning it, collected by gentlemen who, aided by government, have endeavoured to procure its abolition. The success attendant upon their most active exertions has not been very great, nor can there be much chance of a more satisfactory result, until women shall be raised in the scale of society, and considered to be of some weight and importance to the community at large. Whatever may be the case in more enlightened countries, the example set in India can afford little encouragement for women to admit the assumed superiority of the lordly sex, since their submission to this dogma has entailed upon them the necessity of administering to their husband's vices, and of murdering their own children. 8920 59919, at Even-handed justice, however, does not permit the men to reap the full benefit of a system which seemed to promise so fairly, since, in spite of the ab ject nature of their dependance, in no country women possess the same power of annoying their husbands. While divorces are permitted, both on account of the wife's infidelity or the alleged incompatibility of her temper, they are fettered by so many restrictions, and usually encumbered by so large a dowry, that it is not easy to obtain the remedy they offer; and though there may be more summary methods of getting rid of a disagreeable burthen, they cannot in all cases be resorted to with impunity. In fact, nothing can be more anomalous than the present condition of the women of India, and nothing seems to have so completely puzzled those writers who have attempted to describe it from the information conveyed in the works of others. The respect which they occasionally receive, and the chivalric sentiments continually avowed for them, are at variance with the equally continual disparagement, and the contemptuous treatment, to which long habit has induced them to submit. It is only on the wedding-day that a wife is permitted to eat with her husband; on all subse quent occasions, she must be content with the remnants of his meal. In the event of her becoming a widow, she is expected to pass months, nay even years, in abstinence and mourning, it being thought disreputable, even to Moslem women, to marry again, while the husband usually espouses another a few days after his wife's death. But, in order perhaps to balance the account, a native of India possesses little control over the expenditure of the ladies, or at least the principal lady of his household. The women indemnify themselves for the absence of other indulgences by the ornaments of their persons; their accumulation of jewels, shawls, and other costly articles of apparel, is immense, for they have artfully contrived to render the husband's respectability dependant upon the splendour with which he decorates his wives and their attendants. It is impossible, indeed, not to admire the ingenuity with which the women have baffled every attempt to reduce them to nonentities, though it must be a subject of regret to see the energies of their minds so lamentably perverted.

The condition of women varies in different parts of India; the restrictions, imposed upon those belonging to the Hindoo tribes being less severe in pro vinces removed from Mahommedan rule and example. In the Mahratta country, and amongst the Rajpoot states, they appear to be more highly consi dered; but the advantage of this elevation is very questionable, since it serves. only for a pretext to take their lives whenever the sacrifice seems expedient. Some writers have ventured to excuse the infanticide practised by the sentimental Rajpoot, upon the plea of its being less cruel than the custom common, in papal states, of immuring daughters in a convent; and others have attempted to prove that, although the restraints imposed upon women are unnecessary. and sometimes injurious, they enjoy all the respect, freedom, and happiness to which they have a right to aspire.

The Moslem code appears, at first, to be more strict than that of the Hindoo, and certainly the notions entertained by the disciples of the prophet on the subject are not very complimentary to the fair sex. Nevertheless, women appear to be better treated, and to be objects of higher consideration, in many Mahommedan families than amongst the idolatrous portion of the community. In the houses of some of the princes and great men, the females are allowed to be present during the celebration of feasts and festivals, being merely separated from the male guests by a latticed screen, through which they can see all that is going forward, without any risk of exposure to public gaze. On many of these occasions, it is said, the young unmarried of the family have bestowed their hearts upon cavaliers whom they have singled out of the assembly on account of some peculiar personal grace. This departure from the general rule has not always been attended with unfortunate results, the damsel having obtained the object of her choice, and living, in the language of the story-book, very happily all the rest of her days. The widows of Mahommedans are assuredly better off than those of the Hindoos, and the prophet himself, by the respect and esteem which he manifested for his daughter Fatima, gave an assurance to his followers, that he at least did not entertain a contemptible opinion of the

MR. MOORCROFT'S JOURNEY TO BALKI AND BOKHARA. JOURNAL OF GHOLAUM HYDER KHAN, EDITED, WITH NOTES, BY MAJOR HEARSEY.

(Continued from p. 182.)

MR. MOORCROFT resided altogether eleven months in Cashmere, living in this place. During this sojourn, he had made up forty pairs of very fine shawls, and several other things of great value, waistcoat-pieces, ailwauns, and ruzzaees (or coverlids), in all costing about Rs. 50,000 of the Cashmeree currency, which is about ten annas per rupee: this base coin is current in Cashmere only. Of these shawls, the very best were sent to Delhi, to be forwarded as a present to the King of England and to his ministers; one package was sent down to Mr. Palmer, and a few to Mr. W. Fraser and other of his friends he only took two packages of shawls with him to Bokhara for sale. Amongst other curious things, he had a musical instrument made up, called a sungtoor, consisting of nearly 150 iron wires, stretched across a board, about two feet six inches long, and eighteen inches broad; this was played upon by striking the wires with two curved sticks, and produced many beautiful tunes. The silversmiths in Cashmere are also excellent workmen. Mr. Mooreroft had two sets of silver horse-trappings made up; one set he sent to England, and the other to Calcutta; they weighed Rs. 300; he paid the workmen at the rate of three annas per diem.

The buying shawls is conducted thus: there are a set of dullols, called mookeems (brokers), who get an allowance of one anna per rupee. These men search the looms for, and bring to you, the finest shawls, without border, or edge, coloured or white; when you have approved of them, and it has been priced, the borders and edgings are also brought for approval, and the price settled; they then take it to the shawl-darners, called ruffoogurs, whose business is to join them to the sheet; when this is finished, the mookeems stretch them, put them into a press, cover them with coloured paper, which serves as a contrast to set off the colours, and bring them in that state, taking the price. It takes one year to complete a first-rate good pair of shawls, and generally four men are at work at one time upon a border. As the mode they manufacture this beautiful article may be interesting and instructive, Gholaum Hyder Khan was very attentive to it, and thus describes the whole operation. After the wool has been picked by the hand, and the best kinds extracted, a quantity of very fine rice-flour is put upon it, and it is beaten gently with a stick, until the grease and dirt of the wool is extracted by the rice-flour. After this, it is carded many times by the hand, and then spun very fine, with a common distaff, the same as is used in India. To the finest and largest pair of shawls for the body, or pair of sheets, it takes 3 lbs. of this thread, and the borders and edging require about 24 lbs. more. If the shawl is to be coloured, as soon as the body is completed, it is sent to the dyers; the edging and borders are put on afterwards. The highest-priced shawls are made by particular order, and the highest then on the looms at Cashmere was valued at Rs. 2,500, equivalent to 1,562 Calcutta rupees. The common shawls, made from the secondary kind of wool, cost from Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 700 the pair, or from 625 Calcutta rupees to 500, and Rs. 432. The third and indifferent kind of wool is wove into shawls valuing from Rs. 300 to Rs. 80, Cashmeree, per pair, or Calcutta Rs. 187 to Rs. 50. The best shawl square handkerchiefs (and the demand for them is only from Hindoostan), flowered, are valued from Rs. 250 to Rs. 150, or Calcutta coin, Rs. 156 to Rs. 931. The second kind goes down