funeral pile by the side of her husband's body, and died without uttering a cry.[1]
At that time, according to Diodorus, the law only allowed the sacrifice of one wife. In the eighteenth century it was more exacting. In fact, the writers of the Lettres édifiantes have described in detail several sacrifices of this kind. The custom was no longer observed except by wives of grandees, and especially of rajahs; but all of these were burnt, save the women with child, whose suffering was only deferred.
In 1710, at the death of the Prince of Marava, aged eighty years, all his wives, to the number of forty-seven, were burnt with his corpse, which was richly adorned and placed in a large grave filled with wood. The victims, who were covered with precious stones, stepped at first very bravely on the funeral pile; but the moment the flames reached them, they uttered loud cries, and rushed on each other. The spectators succeeded in calming them by throwing a number of pieces of wood at them; afterwards their bones were gathered up and thrown into the sea, and a temple to their honour was erected over the grave.[2] At that date, and in that part of the country, even women with child were only temporarily spared till after their delivery.[3] Two other princes, vassals of Marava, having died at the same epoch, and leaving, the one seventeen, the other thirteen widows, all these unfortunate creatures were burnt together, except one, who, being with child, could not sacrifice herself until later. The suttees were not a legal obligation; relatives even tried to dissuade the widows from it; but the point of honour, and the fear of public opinion, or rather of public contempt, were stronger with them than love of life.[4] The mode of burning varied in different provinces. In Bengal the woman was bound firmly to the corpse, and the two bodies were covered with bamboos. In Orissa, the widow threw herself on the pile, which was in a pit or grave. In the Deccan, a country which was in great part Tamil, and where suttees were much more rare, the widow sat on the pile, and placed the head of her dead husband on her knees. She remained thus,
