1 APPENDIX — WIVES. 209
2 to the hasband, should make but an insincere and heart-
3 less impression. Females are daily accused before Chiefs
4 and their officers of breaches of conjugal virtue, and of
5 having absconded to evade the claims of a father, or
6 mother-in-law, or the established rights of a Jeth, or a
7 Daiwiir. When they have fled into the territory of
8 another Chief, it is often difficult to obtain their restitu-
9 tion, but the solicitations of a Punchayt, and the more
10 forcible argument of reprisals, are in the end efficacious,
11 and the unfortunate woman, if she do not in a fit of despe-
12 ration take opium, or cast herself into a well, is necessi-
13 tated to submit to the law of the land, which she will again
14 violate on the first opportune occasion. Sense of shame,
15 or feelings of honor, have no place in the breast of a Jat,*
16 and the same may be said of men of other low tribes.
17 They will make strenuous exertions for recovery of their
18 wives, after they have absconded, and will take them back
19 as often as they can get them, bickering even for the
20 children the woman may have had by her paramour, as some
21 recompense for her temporary absence, and for the ex-
22 pense and trouble they have incurred in the search for herf
23 Debtors and revenue defaulters who abscond, and find
24 protection in a foreign state, are seldom demanded, and
25 if demanded, never surrendered by even the most petty
26 Chief. The promise is made, that, when the delinquent
27 has the means, he shall discharge whatever sum may
28 appear, on a scrutiny into his accounts, to be fairly due
29 • The old Chief Tara Singh Ghvba often declared, that a Jat's nose
30 reached to Mooltan, and that if he lost a part of it for any offence,
31 there would still be enough remaining. Implying that he was a stranger
32 to shame and could survive disgrace.
33 t Law of Moses, Deuteronomy, Chap. 23d v. 15 and 16.
34 2 c