disuse of the militant surname, and the Sikh reverts, as a Ját peasant, into the ordinary Hindu community. Even where there has been no abandonment of the Sikh name and creed the tendency is always, in less essential matters, to revert to the practice of the ancient religion, and it is here, as in all countries, that feminine influence is paramount.
To women, altogether uneducated, the abstract faith of Sikhism, whether the philosophical theism of Nának or the political teaching of Govind Singh, is far less attractive than the Hindu polytheism, which is easy to be understood and which gives to their religious exercises a colour and life that the dry recital of obscure passages of the Granth cannot impart. Joining in the Hindu worship, the women have their share in the outdoor life of their sisters in the village. The morning visit to the temple, or to the stones stained with red ochre where the protecting deity of the community resides; the numerous festivals of the Hindu pantheon, with the noise and excitement and fine clothes; these are the only diversions of native women, whose lives are ordinarily sad and monotonous, and whose only dissipations are religious. To choose between Hinduism and Sikhism was for them as if English women were asked to choose between a ball-room and a Quaker meeting. Moreover, the influence of the priest, whether a Catholic or a Bráhman, weighs more heavily on the woman than on the man. She is dependent on the priest for a good deal of her happiness in this world and for
