The bridegroom is never considered to belong to the family of the bride, but the latter leaves her own relations for those of her husband.
No woman, however, is allowed to see or speak with the male relations of her husband, nor dare she ever appear before the men- servants of her household without being veiled.

If she wishes to pay a visit to her mother, she is carried to her shut up in a palanquin.
I also saw the Baboo's wife and one of his sisters-in-law.

The former was twenty-five years old and very corpulent, the latter was fifteen and was slim and well made.

The reason of this, as I was told, is that the females, although married so young, seldom become mothers before their fourteenth year, and until then preserve their original slimness.

After their first confinement, they remain for six or eight weeks shut up in their room, without taking the least exercise, and living all the time on the most sumptuous and dainty food.