My host sent for his two sons, handsome boys, one seven and the other four years old, and introduced them to me.  I inquired, although it was quite contrary to custom to do so, after his wife and daughters.  Our poor sex ranks so low in the estimation of the Hindoos, that it is almost an insult to a person to mention any of his female relations.  He overlooked this in me, as a European, and immediately sent for his daughters.  The youngest, a most lovely baby six months old, was nearly white, with large splendid eyes, the brilliancy of which was greatly increased by the delicate eyelids, which were painted a deep blue round the edges.  The elder daughter, nine years old, had a somewhat common coarse face.  Her father, who spoke tolerable English, introduced her to me as a bride, and invited me to the marriage which was to take place in six weeks.  I was so astonished at this, considering the child’s extreme youth, that I remarked he no doubt meant her betrothal, but he assured me that she would then be married and delivered over to her husband.

On my asking whether the girl loved her intended bridegroom, I was told that she would see him for the first time at the celebration of the nuptials.  The Baboo informed me further, that every person like himself looked out for a son-in-law as soon as possible, and that the younger a girl married the more honourable was it accounted; an unmarried daughter was a disgrace to her father, who was looked upon as possessed of no paternal love if he did not get her off his hands.  As soon as he has found a son-in-law, he describes his bodily and mental qualities as well as his worldly circumstances to his wife, and with this description she is obliged to content herself, for she is never allowed to see her future son-in-law, either as the betrothed, or the husband of her child.  The bridegroom is never considered to belong to the family of the bride, but the latter leaves her own relations for those of her husband.  No woman, however, is allowed to see or speak with the male relations of her husband, nor dare she ever appear before the men-servants of her household without being veiled.  If she wishes to pay a visit to her mother, she is carried to her shut up in a palanquin.

I also saw the Baboo’s wife and one of his sisters-in-law.  The former was twenty-five years old and very corpulent, the latter was fifteen and was slim and well made.  The reason of this, as I was told, is that the females, although married so young, seldom become mothers before their fourteenth year, and until then preserve their original slimness.  After their first confinement, they remain for six or eight weeks shut up in their room, without taking the least exercise, and living all the time on the most sumptuous and dainty food.  This fattening process generally produces the desired effect.  The reader must know that the Hindoos, like the Mahomedans, are partial to corpulent ladies.  I never saw any specimens of this kind of beauty, however, among the lower classes.