324 AROUND THE WORLD VIA INDIA. 



an opportunity to become a witness of this funeral rite. 

 On the way to the Taj Mahal we passed a small pro- 

 cession, following a corpse carried on a litter of dry 

 bamboo sticks on the shoulders of four men. The corpse 

 was covered with a cloth of bright colors, red being 

 the predominating one. The whole procession was 

 made up of men, 24 in number. Women never attend 

 funerals. The procession moved in quick steps and 

 the mourners chanted a monotonous dirge, repeating 

 over and over the same words, which the guide trans- 

 lated into "The name of God is true." Wishing to 

 profit by this opportunity to witness an open-air crema- 

 tion, I abandoned, for the time being, the visit to the Taj 

 Mahal and followed the procession. The procession 

 continued its march until the border of the Jumna 

 River was reached, where the corpse resting on the 

 bamboo litter was deposited on the ground. I learned 

 that the body was the corpse of a married coolie woman, 

 25 years old. She was sick 15 days with a diffuse 

 swelling of the face (erysipelas?), and had died at 5 

 o'clock in the morning of the same day. It was now 

 9 a. m. Her husband was working in a place in the 

 country, 20 miles from the city, and knew nothing of 

 her illness and death. The only relative present was 

 a brother, a lad about 17 years old, who officiated at 

 the ceremony. The people were evidently extremely 

 poor, so economy had to be practiced in cremating the 

 corpse. The men squatted in a group on the banks 

 of the river, smoked and chatted, and nothing but the 

 presence of the corpse and the materials for building 

 a fire reminded us that we were in the presence of death. 

 The young brother was the only one whose face was 

 earnest and expressive of grief, but not a tear was to 

 be seen. Wood is very expensive in India, y^ pie a 

 pound (1/16 of a cent), hence it was used sparingly 

 in this cremation. About two armsful had been pro- 

 cured. A pile of round dry chips, each about the size 

 of a soup plate, was to be the principal fuel. These 



