THE STORY OF FATE
When a baby is born in India the lines between the bones of its skull
can be traced just as they can be traced in a fair-skinned child. The
mother of a white baby does not notice them much, but they mean a
great deal to an Indian mother, for an ancient story is told about them.
Very long ago a little daughter was born to Brahma, the creator, and
its mother asked the father to tell her what would happen to the little
child. Then the god Brahma turned his back to his wife and his baby,
and stretched out his hand behind him towards the child. In his hand he
held a golden pen, and he wrote with it on the baby’s head. He could
not see the letters he was writing, but his wife could, and as she read
the words she called out to Brahma to change the writing, because she
would not have so sad a future for her child. Brahma wrote again, and
this time the life he foretold was worse than the first one had been.
Again the baby’s mother refused to let him leave so cruel a fate on the
head of the child, and once more he wrote. But this time Brahma did not
give his wife time to speak. Ere she could say anything he threw away
his golden pen, and since that day he has only written once for each
child that has been born. The future that Brahma writes on the skull is
called the “fate,” and so each Indian mother believes that everything
that will happen to her child is fixed when she first traces on the
little skull those curious markings which she calls the writing of the
pen of Brahma.
When a baby is born there is great eagerness to know whether it is a
boy or a girl. If it is a boy there is joy in the home; everyone is
glad, and the mother of the little child at once feels that she has
been a good woman, and that the gods are pleased with her because
they have given her a son. But if the baby is a girl everyone is sad,
and the father if he is asked about it may say, “It is nothing,” for
he thinks it a sorrow to have a little girl child born. He would far
rather have a calf, because a cow is a sacred animal, but the birth
of a little girl is a sign of the anger of the gods. Besides that
the father knows that he will one day have to pay a great sum to her
husband at her marriage. When she is still very young her husband will
take her away to his father’s house, so that she will never be able to
do anything for her father and mother in their old age. So there are
many reasons why a little girl is not welcome. She is a sign of the
anger of the gods; she will cost a great deal of money, and she will
never be able to help her parents.
Sometimes when a father is told that he has a little daughter, he says
nothing, but only clasps his thumb round the fingers of his hand, and
that is a sign that the wee baby girl is to die. It is very easy to
kill a little infant, and where everyone thinks that it is right, it
can be done quietly, so that though those in the house know about it,
no one will say anything. It is sad to think how many little children
are killed in this way still, even before their mother’s heart has
grown tender to them, but some years ago, before the Government of
India set itself to stop this crime, there were hundreds of little baby
girls killed openly every year.
And if anyone had asked how fathers and mothers could be so cruel the
answer would have been, “It is our custom,” or, “It was her fate.” For
everything depends on fate to the Hindu, and no one can help anything
that happens. If an animal is drowned in a well, he leaves it there.
It was the creature’s fate to fall into the well, and it is not his
custom to cleanse the well. The children of the village may sicken and
die because of the poison in the well, but that too is fate, and no one
pauses to ask whether there may not be some other cause.