The next Brata is called the _Sajooty_ Brata. It is solely intended to counteract the thousand evils of polygamy--an unhealthy, unnatural institution, which ought to be expunged from the midst of every civilized community. Though God "has stamped no original characters on our minds wherein we may read his being," still we can clearly discern in His superior arrangements for the happiness of His creatures, that this abnormal practice is directly opposed to His dispensations, so much so that any one countenancing it, is guilty of a crime, for which, if he is not amenable to an earthly tribunal, he is assuredly accountable to a superior and superintending Being, the infringement of whose law is sure to be attended with misery. To get rid of the consequences of this monstrous evil, a girl of five years of age is taught to offer her invocation to God, and in the outburst of her juvenile feeling is almost involuntarily led to indulge in all manner of curses and imprecations against the possible rival of her bed. Nor can we find fault with her conduct, because "an overmastering and brooding sense" of some great future calamity thus early haunts her mind. In performing the _Sajooty Brata_, the girl paints on the floor with rice paste a variety of things, such as the bough of a flower tree, a Palkee containing a man and a woman, with the sun and moon over it, the Ganges and the Jumna with boats on them, the temple of Mahadeo with Mahadeo in it, various ornaments of gold and precious stones, houses, markets, garden, granary, farm-yard and a number of other things, all intended to represent worldly prosperity. After painting the above, she invokes Mahadeo and prays for his blessing. An elderly lady more experienced in domestic matters then begins to dictate, and the girl repeats a volley of abuses and curses against her _Sateen_ or rival wife in the possible future. "There, stripped, fair rhetoric languished on the ground, And shameful Billingsgate her robes adorn." The following are a few of the specimens; I wish I could have transcribed them in metre.:-- "_Barrey, Barrey, Barrey_ (a cooking utensil) May _Sateen_ become a slave! _Khangra, Khangra, Khangra_, (broomstick) May _Sateen_ be exposed to infamy! _Hatha, Hatha, Hatha_, (a cooking utensil) May she devour her _Sateen's_ head! _Geelay, Geelay, Geelay_ (a fruit) May _Sateen_ have spleen! _Pakee, Pakee, Pakee_ (bird) May _Sateen_ die and may she see her from the top of her house! _Moyna, Moyna, Moyna_ (bird) May she never be cursed with a _Sateen_!" May she cut an _Usath_ tree, erect a house there, cause her _Sateen_ to die and paint her feet with her _Sateen's_ blood! I might swell the list of these curses, but I fear they would prove grating to the ears of civilized readers.