entitled Hiftorical Events relative to India, thus-accounts for
this more than inhuman pradtice : “ At the demife of the
mortal part of thé llindöo gréai lawgiver and prophet, Bramah,
his wives, inconfolable for his lofs, refolved not to fur-
vive him, and offetodt-hetofelves voluntary vidtitos ott his
funeral pile. The fives' o f the chief Ràjàhs, the fixft officers
-of the ftate, being unwilling to have it fought that
drey were deficient in fidelity and àfièdtion, followed the heroic
example fet them by the wives of Bramah. The Bra-
mins, a tribe then tiewly eftablifhed by their great legiflator,
pronounced and declared, that the fpirits -of thole heroines
immediately ceafcd from their tranfmigrations, and had entered
thé firft boboon of purification : it followed, drat their
■ wives claimed â right of making the fame facrifice Of their
mortal fortos to God, and the manes of their deCeafed husbands.'
The wives of every Hindoo caught’the enthufiaftiC
(now pious) flame. Thus the heroic adts of a Few Women
brought about à general cuftom. The Bramins had given it
the damp of religion, and inftituted the forms and ceremonials
that were to accompany the facrifice, fubjedl to reftric-
tion, which leave it a voluntary a<ft of glory, piety, and fortitude.
” The author proceeds to ftate expreflly, that he has
been prefent kt many óf thefe facipfees^and particularly and
minutely records one that happened on the 4th of February,
near to Coffimbufcar, of a young widow between
feventeen and eighteen years of age, leaving at fo e#ly an
age three children, two boys, and a girl; the eldeft he mcn-
I N D IA .
tions as^not. then being, four; years, of age. This infatuated
hejoine was ftronglyurgecj to livejfór.thê; future care of her
infants; .but notwfthftanding this-, though theagoniesiof death
were painted-, to her intheftrongeft and moft lively terms, {he,
with a calm and refplved countenance, put her finger, .into the
.fire, and hejd.it' there aconfiderable time; fhe then with' one
hand put, fire in the palm of, thé ojhsri fprinkledi ihcenfe on it,
and. fumigated the Bramins. -She was-, thenjrgiveri- to under-
ftand, by fome-,o£'bet friends,-that &eiwpuld nqt be permitted
.tej^bum .herfelf-, and .this intimation appeared.to give her
deep affljdtipn for a few moments; after which fhe refolutdy
replied, that deathwa^jn her own power, and that i f fhe was
trot allowed; to bum,- according • tof the, principles: of her caft,
fbe: wcaddiftarve herfelf. Her friends,- finding her thus pe^
remptory,;were obliged at laftto confent to the dreadful facm
ficesdf-this lady, who was ófdfigh rank. The perfon whom
I faw was-of the Bhyfe (merchant) tribe .or. caft; a> clafs .of
people we fhould naturally fuppofe exempt from the high and
impetuous pride óf rank, 'and,in whom the natural;defire;|o
preferve life fhould in general .predominate, undiverted from
its proper courfe by a profpedt oft pofthumOus faïne. I may^
add, that thefe motives; are’ gfeatly ftrengthened by.the exemption..
of this clafs .from that infamy, with which the .refufal is
inevitably .branded in their fuperiors, Upon my repairing to
the fpot, on the banks of the river, where the ceremony was
to ta^e place, I found the body of the’ man on a bier, and covered
with linen, already brought down and laid at the edge
M