“And the King said: ‘Yea, my Queen, so even shouldst thou, when I have done thee this honour.’ “But she stood erect, smiling gladly. ‘Nay,’ said she, ‘not so; for both feet and head are my lord’s. Can I have aught that is mine?’” XI PORTRAITS OF SOME INDIAN WOMEN Take first the Indian wife. Was there ever the world over a like conception of the married state? Chief priestess of her husband, whom to serve is her religion and her delight. One with him in the economy of the household, certainly, but moving in a plane far below him for all other purposes--religious, mental, social; gentle and adoring, but incapable of participation in the larger interests of his life, incapable of participation even in his games. “We are richer,” “we are poorer”--that the bounds of a joint intelligence. To please his mother, whose chief handmaiden she is in things domestic, and to bring him a son--these her two ambitions; but the latter chiefly, for to the mother of a son will a husband forgive even wrangles in the house-place. Oh, the worshipping of Gods, the consultings of oracles, the stealthy working of charms to this end! And if the Gods prove gracious, proud indeed is the little lady, a creature of good omen, a being to be welcomed at feasts, to be invoked by the childless. No longer is she a failure; even widowhood would leave her with the chastened halo of that son who is worthy to offer sacrifices. Such an attitude of mind may seem irrational to the alien, but it should be remembered that the whole idea of marriage in the East revolves simply on the conception of Life; a community of interests, companionship--these never enter into the general calculation. Nor is this strange when one reflects on how large a place life must fill in the thoughts of a people believing in re-incarnation. As a life-bringer alone has a woman her place in the scheme of Hindu philosophy. For life and religion are inextricable in the loom of Time; and woman never did have a Vedic value.