SUTHERLAND SUTTEE. 



469 



Downs, which run in a direction parallel to the 

 coast, and on which immense flocks of sheep are 

 pastured. Sussex has heen long celebrated for the 

 excellence of its breed of cattle, which is univer- 

 sally acknowledged to be inferior to none in the 

 kingdom. The most important mineral product 

 of the county is limestone, some kinds of which are 

 polished as marble, particularly that found about 

 Pet worth. Iron-ores are abundant, and were for- 

 merly smelted with charcoal, but that operation has 

 become unprofitable, and has therefore been dis- 

 continued since the establishment of iron-works 

 in the great coal districts. The principal rivers of 

 Sussex are the Arun, Adur, Ouse, Lavant, and 

 Rother, the two first of which are navigable a few 

 miles from their mouth. The Rother forms Rye 

 harbour, and separates the county from Kent. 

 There is only one canal in Sussex, which joins the 

 towns of Petworth and Midhurst with the Arun. 

 Population in 1831, 272,328. 



SUTHERLAND; one of the most northerly 

 counties of Scotland, extending across the island 

 from the Atlantic to the German ocean. It is 

 bounded on all sides by the sea, except on the 

 north-east by Caithness, and on the south by Ross- 

 shire. The length, from east to west, varies 

 between forty-five and fifty miles, and its breadth, 

 from north to south, between thirty-five and fifty. 

 It contains 1865 square miles of land, and thirty- 

 eight square miles of salt water lakes. The west- 

 ern coast of Sutherland is a succession of inlets of 

 the sea, variegated with bold promontories, and 

 numerous rocks and islets. The interior, which is 

 almost universally wild, rocky, and mountainous, 

 may be divided into three districts. The eastern 

 is a level piece of land on the east coast, about a 

 quarter of a mile broad, and is sheltered from the 

 north by a ridge of mountains, from 300 to 800 

 feet high. The middle district is occupied by the 

 four straths of the rivers of Helmsdale, Brora, 

 Fleet, and Oickel. Black cattle and sheep form 

 here the wealth of the farmer. The western dis- 

 trict, which borders on the Atlantic, is wild and 

 mountainous. The mountains of Ben-mor, Assynt, 

 Glass-bhein, Ben-canap, Benchoinag, or the sugar 

 loaf mountains, Ben-evie, Craig-rou, Benmore, and 

 Stackben, are of great altitudes, and though entirely 

 barren, yet at their base they display many exten- 

 sive and well managed farms. 



The county of Sutherland has derived immense 

 advantages from the admirable establishments of 

 the marquis of Stafford. Formerly the only manu- 

 facture was that of kelp, to the extent of 250 tons 

 annually. Very important fisheries are carried on 

 in the west, north, and east coasts. At Helmsdale, 

 on the east coast, the marquis of Stafford has 

 expended large sums in erecting buildings necessary 

 for this purpose, and the tenants who had been re- 

 moved from their farms have embarked with much 

 success in this new profession. A considerable 

 number of boats are occupied in the cod, ling, had- 

 dock, and herring fisheries, on the north and west 

 coasts, where lobsters and mussels are also obtained 

 in abundance. In this county both coal and lime- 

 stone have been recently discovered. 



Sutherlandshire contains only one town, which 

 is a, royal burgh, and the county town, namely, 

 Dornoch; besides which it has the thriving modern 

 villages of Golspie, Brora, and Helmsdale, on the 

 east coast, and some small villages on the north i 

 and west coast. Each of the modern villages have ! 

 good inns. The shire has thirteen and a half 1 



parochial divisions. In the year 1755, the popula- 

 tion was 20,774; in 1821, it amounted to 23,840; 

 in 1831, to 25,518. 



SUTTEE, or, more properly, SATI; a word 

 in the Sanscrit, or sacred language of the Hindoos, 

 meaning pure, and hence extensively applied to 

 their female deities, and to acts of purification, 

 especially to that pre-eminent species, the self-im- 

 molation of the widow on the funeral pile of her 

 deceased husband. The name of this horrid sacri- 

 fice is commonly written suttee by the English ; 

 but sati is the correct mode of spelling it, accord- 

 ing to the orthographical system of Sir W. Jones. 

 The origin of satiism, or sutteeism, is buried in 

 mythology. The goddess Sati, to avenge an insult 

 offered to her husband Iswara, by her father's 

 neglect to invite him to an entertainment, con- 

 sumed herself before the assembled gods. To 

 lord Bentinck, governor-general of India, belongs 

 the honour of having abolished this shocking per- 

 version of devotion in the British dominions. This 

 abolition took place in December, 1829. Until 

 then, the British government had permitted it, 

 provided the act was perfectly voluntary (which 

 the religion of Brahma also prescribes), and if 

 notice of such resolution had been previously given 

 to a magistrate, who was required to see that the 

 suttee was public, and that all the requisitions of 

 the law were fulfilled. We learn from bishop 

 Heber's Narrative that the opinions of well-informed 

 men, to whom the cause of humanity was equally 

 dear, were divided respecting the abolition of these 

 self-sacrifices, some believing that suttees would 

 then take place in secret, and be more common 

 than before, and that opportunities, moreover, 

 would be afforded for many murders. The people 

 are said to have heartily rejoiced at the abolition ; 

 but, what may well surprise us, the East India 

 Magazine states that an English lawyer went from 

 India to England to prosecute an appeal before the 

 privy council, made by some Brahmins in Bengal, 

 against lord Bentinck's prohibition of suttees. 

 The same journal states that this " custom had its 

 origin in the excessive jealousy of the early Hindoo 

 princes, who, with a view to prevent their nume- 

 rous widows forming subsequent attachments, 

 availed themselves of their irresponsible power; 

 and, with the aid of the priests, it was promul- 

 gated, as if by sacred authority, that the wives of 

 the Hindoos of every caste, who desire future 

 beatitude, should immolate themselves on the 

 demise of their husbands. Since 1756, when the 

 British power in India became firmly established, 

 upwards of 70,000 widows have been cruelly sacri- 

 ficed ! A Brahmin possesses the privilege of marrying 

 as many wives as he pleases. Ununtu, a Brahmin 

 who died at Bagnapore, had more than one hun- 

 dred wives: twenty-two were burned at his death. 

 The fire was kept burning three days. He had 

 married foitr sisters, two of whom were burned 

 with his corpse. A short time before lord Bentinck's 

 order, a rajah in the hill country, who died, had 

 twenty-eight wives burned with his body." So far 

 the East India Magazine. Perhaps, however, this 

 self-immolation is in part owing to the surprisingly 

 little value which Hindoos put on human life 

 (hence so many suicides, infanticides, immolations 

 and self-immolations), and to the relation of the 

 Hindoo wife to her husband. None of the sacred 

 books of the Hindoos command the suttee, though 

 they speak of it as highly meritorious ; it is believed 

 to render the husband and his ancestors happy, and 



