Ranera is an unimportant place. I was here offered
a cow-stall to sleep in. It was indeed kept very clean; but I
preferred sleeping in the open air.
Till a late hour of the night this town was very lively:
processions of men and a number of women and children followed the
noise of the tam-tam, which they accompanied with a wild, howling
song, and proceeded to some tree, under which an image of an idol
was set up.
We had on this day to cross several ranges of low hills. The
uncultivated ground was everywhere scorched up by the sun; {209}
nevertheless, the plantations of poppies, flax, corn, and cotton,
etc., grew very luxuriantly. Water-dykes were let into the fields
on every side, and peasants, with their yokes of oxen, were engaged
in bringing water from the wells and streams. I did not see any
women at work.
In my numerous journeys, I had an opportunity of observing that the
lot of the poorer classes of women in India, in the East, and among
coloured people generally, was not so hard as it is believed to be.
In the towns where Europeans reside, for example, their linen is
washed and prepared by men; it is very seldom that it is necessary
for women to take part in out-door labour; they carry wood, water,
or any other heavy burdens only in their own houses.
