sanguinary demons in India, and many of the infants thrown to the crocodiles or sharks at Saugor by their mothers were immolated in fulfillment of religious vows. Even the desire for children has led to their destruction, the mother promising her deity, in advance, that if blessed with offspring, the first-born should be returned in sacrifice. In this case “the child of the vow” is carefully cherished for three or four years, and then the mother, tempting it a step beyond its depth, resigns it to the Ganges, or deliberately casts it toward the pampered alligator, and stands to see it bleeding within the monster's jaws! Again, it is not uncommon for a poor, sickly babe (under the blind infatuation of its parents, that its illness is caused by some malignant demon who has taken possession of it) to be placed in a basket and carried into the forest, and there suspended from a tree, and abandoned for three or four days and nights; and if, at the end of that time, the vultures, or ants, or beasts of prey, have not made away with it, and its sickness has departed, it is restored to its home.
But none of these abominable cruelties adequately account for the prevalence of female infanticide. We have to seek its causes in more unworthy motives than even these. In fact, the daughters of India have been sacrificed one generation after another, not to the superstition of their parents, but to their Satanic pride.
It is very difficult to convey to American readers, or to the common sense of a Christian lady, any adequate idea of the soaring and extravagant pride of family descent of such a race as the Rajpoots.
Multitudes of these Rajpoots are as poor as they are proud, and as immemorial custom requires, in the event of a daughter's marriage, not only her own “gift and dowry” to be provided, but the festivities of the occasion, lasting six days, to be furnished for all relatives and friends, priests, bards, and various functionaries, who must be “bidden” and provided for munificently, it is simply ruinous for all but the wealthy to dare the experiment, certainly more than once: hence the female children are still secretly murdered.
To this is added, what is equally difficult for Europeans and
