SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK. 3
[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as have not been reserved for review in other forms.]
Ram Dai : a Tale of Hindu Home Life. By Khwaja All Mohamed. (J. Blackwood and Co.)—It may be presumed that in the Punjab, from which this volume is dated, criticism has not got so far as to object to the purpose-novel. Anyhow, Khwaja Ali Mohamed frankly confesses that he has made "an attempt to hold up some of the evil customs of Indian society to public indignation or ridicule." Child-marriage is one of them, for Ram Dai is a bride at twelve, though she does not seem to be particularly unhappy; the ban on remarriage is another ; Ram Dal marries a second time, and does not stiffer except from hard words, and these, we know, break no bones. The foolish expenditure on a wedding is another "evil custom" which is ridiculed. Various phases of domestic life are, intro- duced. There is a sketch of a famine year, though we are happily spared most of the horrors which might have been intro- duced. Altogether, the book is one of some interest. The English is scarcely idiomatic, but it is generally correct.
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