steps, the beautiful woman stood still, and, pressing both her hands upon the cold feet of her lifeless husband, she raised them to her forehead, in token of cheerful submission; she then ascended and crept within the little arbor, seating herself at the head of her lord, her right hand resting upon his head. The torch was placed in my hand, and, overwhelmed with commingled emotions, I fired the pile. Smoke and flame in an instant enveloped the scene, and amid the deafening shouts of the multitude, I sank senseless upon the earth. I was quickly restored to consciousness, but already the devouring element had reduced the funeral pile to a heap of charred and smoldering timber. The Brahmins strewed the ashes around, and with a trembling hand I assisted my father to gather the blackened bones of my beloved uncle and aunt, when, having placed them in an earthen vessel, we carried them to the Ganges, and with prayer and reverence committed them to the sacred stream.”
The other, and the most determined instance of suttee, in view of her age, etc., that is on record, is described by an English gentleman who was governor of that part of the country, and in whose presence it took place. He says: “On receiving charge of the District of Jubbulpore in 1828, I issued a proclamation prohibiting any one from assisting in suttee. On Tuesday, November 24, 1829, I had an application from the heads of the most respectable family of Brahmins in the place to suffer an old lady, aged sixty-five years, to burn herself with the body of her husband, Omed Sing Opuddea, who had died that morning. I threatened to enforce my order and punish severely any man who assisted, and placed a police guard to see that no one did so. She remained sitting by the edge of the river with the body, without eating or drinking. The next day the body of her husband was burned to ashes in a small pit, about eight feet square and four deep, before thousands of people who had assembled to see the suttee. All strangers dispersed before evening, as there seemed no prospects of my yielding to the urgent solicitations of her family, who, according to the rules of their faith, dared not touch food till she had
