sides, each pupil will have a copy of the Bible given her, with a request to read it for herself. And then we must leave the work of their conversion to the Holy Spirit."
The next step was to collect the necessary funds to start such a home. With this object a society, called the "Ramabai Association," was started in Boston in December 1887, and continues to work up to the present time, all its efforts being devoted to further the cause of Hindu child widows. In order to make the work better known, and to enlist public sympathy by letting people really understand the condition of Indian women, Ramabai wrote The High-Caste Hindu Woman, a book which could hardly fail to produce a deep impression, or to awaken a widespread interest in her work. Here for the first time was recorded, in earnest but temperate language, the complete story of a Hindu woman's life her position as defined by religion and by custom, her joys, her sorrows, and her needs. From her very birth a woman, we are told, is exposed to unkindness, to contempt, and to cruelty. So unwelcome is a daughter in most families, that it is not surprising that means of removing them are gladly seized, and that the practice of female infanticide, although sternly prohibited by law, yet flourishes in secret in some parts of the country. To quote the words of the Pundita herself, "The census of 1870 revealed
