Oct. 2, 1885.] 



♦ KNO\VLEDGE ♦ 



frieuds or relative's; and -wc kiKMv frMu l.i,\, I'liny. 

 Juvenal, and a host of other Hdiiuui \. v.i i , ini i In- 

 vestal virgins wlio committed tin lu,-' :. , . .1 

 victimis obrwchantur, ut hoc difussiuiu: acdi:.. hue (incu^- 

 iitatis) e.qnantur; et divinae irae rvatii6 Iwo jlayitio 

 contractus solveretur. 



Herodotus further mentions that Amestris, one of the 

 wives of Darius, who would appear to be losing her hold 

 through advancing years on the affections of that monarch, 

 caused fourteen of the children of her principal nobles to 

 be buried alive, " ad referendam," as this writer quaintly 

 puts it, " pro se gratiam deo ; " and Porphyry ascribes a 

 similar custom to an Arabian tribe, which he calls the 

 Deomactii. Readers of Horace will remember that his 

 witch, Canidia, buried the boy she had stolen up to his 

 chin, so that she might be thus the better enabled to 

 extract a love-potion out of his marrow and liver ; and, 

 describing the eunuchs of Peru and the houses in which 

 the so-called " Daughters of the Sun " were secluded, old 

 Purchas says (his " Pilgrimage," p. 883) that "if any of 

 the Mamacomas — the young virgin nuns— or Aellas were 

 found to have trespassed against their honour, it was an 

 inevitable chastisement to bury them alive, or to put 

 them to death by some other cruel torment." 



Dwelling on some of the strange scenes he witnessed 

 on his arrival in India, soon after our first settlement 

 at Surat, Dr. John Fryer says ("An Account of India." 

 London: Triibner. Page 378) that, "atHubly, in this 

 kingdom, are a cast called Liugints, whose wives .... 

 are set in the same pit (with their dead husbands), 

 ^ [) to the sh ■' 



monies perform 

 the pit filled 1 

 would, after al 



od, 1 



ai^pe: 



I their 

 earth 



leck.s ^ 



lllni, 



Aim 



I thi^ 



a purely vulunliirN arl, iii:isiiiiicli ;is ilic doomed 

 widow might liaw " ^r;,|H.l ttiih 1 1 1', ■ if .slir eluise. But 

 then she wo>iM i.r>.li:',lil v Ijave become an oixtcast, or 

 worse; and it is ;t :iuy linua case of Hobson's choice 

 between live lMiri:il .mmI IIm- burning. Superstition of 

 the grossest eh;M-,irt. r cmilil alone reconcile a frail 

 woman to such a dreadful altermii i\v m- (irdrnl ; but it 

 is, we know, capable of even woi-sc tliin-s t li:in tljis ; and 

 " the facility with which men and wunu n p. i-suaelc them- 

 selves of a religious sanction for what they wish to do, 

 however cruel and iniquitous, is not," says General 

 Sleeman,* " unhappily, peculiar to any class or any 

 creed." 



Touching its enforcement as a punishment as contra- 

 distinguished from its ceremonial ur sacrificial uses, tin 

 recorcl is necessarily more scanty. I have only beci 

 to collect a few cases in point, but many ethers 

 doubtless have escaped notice carent ijuia \:;ir 

 and the perpetrators of such hellish bailnriiii 

 either unknown to fame or they shrink froiu [lul^ 

 Moreover, live-burial as a punishment is now unkuo 



ible 



to the past i-allni 

 tions of this deal li 

 rating the obsin 

 surmount. Sale , 

 Koran," Tegg's . . 

 of Hira, . ."'. . in 

 mate comiiaiilnns, 

 aslee]), (n lie Imrin 



■■■■ • ', r,.i' 



n to 



may ^ 

 of red-h 



Tibet. Fr. Gruber, the Jesuit, as quoted by Mr. 

 Clements Markham,* is my authority in regard to the 

 lormer, and as to the latter Horace de la Penna, another 

 Jesuit, says that " if the death of one of the parties (to a 

 fight) is immediate on the quarrel, thej- — the neighbours 

 or authorities — take and bind the murderer to it, and 

 after twenty-four hours bury both the dead and the 

 living together." 



Coming nearer home, we find a very similar state of 

 things. Thus, describing the customs of Ladak — now in 

 Cashmere territory— Cunninghamf says that,. " in cases of 

 killing in a scuffle in Ladak, the custom . . . was to 

 bind the homicide to the corpse, and at the end of twenty- 

 four hours to cast the living and dead together into the 

 river " ; but if this was not at hand, a hole in the ground 

 took its place. Punishment in the East must, if it would 

 be effectual, be short, sharp, and decisive, and those 

 French or Italian adventurers— Avitabile, J Ventura, &c. 

 — who kejit the tuvlmleiit Punjabees in order for so many 

 years under Itiuijiri Sin_', tlinroughly understood this 

 necessity, anil aeie.l upt.. it. But this is not the place 

 for a review of their „,.dus .>!•, randi, and dwelling on the 

 spirit and determination with which the once famous 

 Begum Sumroo had raised herself from the doubtful 

 position of a dancing -girl at the Mogul Court of Delhi to 

 the musnud (throne) of Sirdhana, near Meerut, General 

 Sleeman says "The Kaiubles and Recollections of a 

 Bengal Oilleer," vol. ii. p. :1S5— that, "while she was 

 encamped with the army at iluttra, news was one day 

 brought Iier that two skive-girls had set fire to her house 

 at Agra, in order that they might make off with their 

 pai-aniuurs, two soldiers of the guard she had left in 

 eharge. These hou.ses had thatched roofs, and contained 

 all her valuables, and the widow.s, wives, and children of 

 her principal officers. The fire had been put out witli 

 much difficulty and great loss of property, and the two 

 slave-girls . . . were brought out to the Begum's tent. 

 She had the aff'air investigated in the usual summary 

 form ; and their guilt being proved to the satisfaction o£ 

 all present, she had them flogged till they were senseless. 



* " Narratives of the Missions of George 

 Manning," pp. 299-300 and 325. 

 f " Ladak," by A. Cunningham, p. 263, and describing the 



and Thomas 



I we have to look 

 for such illustr.a- 

 ailablc. Ennmc- 



A Journey tliroiigh the Kingdom of Oude," vol. ii. p. 250. 



