Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 2, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 October 1858 — Hindoo Women. [ARTICLE]

Hindoo Women.

Never enjoying even female society, their lives are passed in the extreme of listlessness. It is this which produces so manv instances of women burning themselves. The husband’s death is a revolution in their existence, which gives an opening for the mind’s bursting out of the ordinarv of depression. They have a confused notion that the hour is the only one which can occur to them for distinction. As is the case with all spirits that have been long held in restraint, the momentary emancipation is carried to extravagance. Working themselves up to frenzy, they [Hedge themselves to they know not what. Once thejv declare their intention to burn themselves,: which is done in the first instant of bewilderment produced by the husband’s death, no retreat is allowed. The forecasting policy of tho Brahmins has made the of the woman's faltering, not on the individual alone, but cn the whole of her relations, so that her family will force her to perseverance. Then the Brahmins will intoxicate her with representations as well as drugs. In this hot climate the funeral of the defunct must so soon t ike place that there is no time for reflection. The interest of the Brahmins in this is, that it is a triumph over reason. The ! scene is an additional perplexity to that common sense, the growth of which they ■ seduously watch and endeavor to stunt in the lower classes. Subjugation of the inI tellcct, that they may reign over the bodies lof the multitude, is the unremitting object, of that worthless and successful vate Journal as the Marquess of Hastings.