194 HUNTING IN THE JUNGLE. 



up before her bright eyes the extraordinary rewards that 

 she would receive in the next world, and the divine pleas- 

 ures that awaited her in the halls of Brahma. Besides 

 this, she had the surety of a sad life did she refuse to 

 offer herself a willing victim to her belief ; for a widow can- 

 not remarry in India, and she lives with her own family 

 in the greatest poverty and distress, because there is a 

 superstition that the house is unlucky where a widow 

 dwells, and her relatives give her barely enougli to keep 

 body and soul together. For this same reason they are 

 nearly always as anxious to have their widowed relative 

 burned as are the fanatic priests themselves. But in 

 spite of the pressure brought to bear upon her, this girl 

 refused to commit sntttj, as it is called ; and the priests 

 were forced to use druo;s in her food, under the influence 

 of which she was induced to yield her consent. When 

 she returned to herself she found the priests rejoicing over 

 a consent of whicli she remembered nothing, and saw 

 with horror their preparations for the funeral procession 

 and pyre. Suddenly an idea occurred to her ; and she 

 assumed a willing and inspired air, even offering to grace 

 the procession with her husband's stately elephants, on 

 one of which, arrayed in her most gorgeous dress and 

 jewels, she would ride. This pretended conversion was 

 announced to the people as a new miracle and sign of 

 Brahma's approval, and the young widow, from being 

 scorned and insulted, became the heroine of the hour. 

 As the moment for the last ceremonies approached, she 



