Note 10 — CHAPTER 23

Manu lays down some plain and wholesome rules for the domestic conduct of the wife; above all, he recommends her to “preserve a cheerful temper,” and “frugality in domestic expenses” [Laws, v. 150]. Some of his texts savour, however, more of the anchorite than of a person conversant with mankind; and when he commands the husband to be reverenced as a god by the virtuous wife, even though enamoured of another woman, it may be justly doubted if ever he found obedience thereto; or the scarcely less difficult ordinance, “for a whole year let a husband bear with his wife who treats him with aversion,” after which probation he is permitted to separate [ix. 77]. It is very likely the Rajputs are more in the habit of quoting the first of these texts than of hearing the last: for although they have a choice at home, they are not ashamed to be the avowed admirers of the Aspasias and Phrynes of the capital; from the same cause which attracted Socrates and made Pericles a slave and which will continue until the united charms of the dance and the song are sanctioned to be practised by the légitimes within.