History of Nepal. Translated from the Parbs.tiya, by Munshi Shay
Shunker Singh and Pandit Shri Gunanand. With an introductory sketch of the country and people of Nepal, by the Editor, Daniel Wright, M.A. (The University Press, Cambridge.)—It is no fault of author or translators that the History of Nepal is a somewhat dreary affair, a record of trouble and crime, not more voracious than such national histories commonly are, and seldom varied by anything bettor than the mad caprices which are occasionally related in it. The editor is equally free from blame, if his sketch is meagre. The jealousy which hinders strangers from acquiring any knowledge of the country and people is i a very strong feeling indeed. No foreigner, for instance, is allowed to walk out without an armed attendant, who acts possibly as an escort, certainly as a spy. It is much to Dr. Wright's credit that he has been able to observe so much, and to make so creditable a show of the information which he acquired. Some of the facts which he has col- lected are very curious and interesting. What, we wonder, was the process by which this ingeniously-contrived custom grew up among the Nowars,—that every girl is married to a bol-fruit, which, after the ceremony, is thrown into some sacred river ? This most convenient and least exacting of husbands gives the young woman a right to be divorced, if her husband does not suit her, and prevents her from be- coming a widow, and what is a more miserable lot than that of a Hindoo widow ?—thanks to the ingenious idea that the bel-fruit is• always alive.
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