The ceremonies which have been described in this book are almost exclusively performed by women, and the men take little or no part in them, as a rule not even knowing where or when they take place. The rites are simple and cost nothing. During the great pujas which consume so much of our means, women are left in the background. Their special area consists of these ceremonies, vertas as they are called. Each katha or tale specific to the verta, is piously recited by the most elderly of the assembled women. Each story is illustrative of the might and glory of the particular god or goddess that is being honoured and in itself forms a highly interesting part of the ceremony. Most of the tales may seem to unbelievers to be as wild and in itself forms a highly interesting part of the ceremony. Most of the tales may seem to unbelievers to be as wild and childish as nursery tales, yet they are delightful. They please less by the variation of 'moving accidents' than by the homeliness of their construction. They are extremely interesting for the light they throw on the recesses of the Indian women's heart. There is not a week in the year which does not bring with it some festival or other. The devout Hindu's life is, indeed, one round of ceremonies, observances,l fasts, and festivals; and this is emphatically true of Hindu women. Married life and widowhood abound in such duties, and they form the tendrils that hold together the ancient faith inculcated by Pauranic Hinduism. The foreign reader may, perchance feel amused in these echoes of faith from an unknown world.
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