258 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



The forests round here have also by day-time a 

 special charm, at least at this season of the year. 

 A creeper grows among them, now in flower, and the 

 flower exhales a scent faintly resembling that of honey. 

 For miles around the atmosphere is laden with the 

 perfume. 



I have mentioned the mango groves; they are very 

 extensive, so extensive, indeed, as almost to form forests. 

 Though rather monotonous, they are still pleasant to 

 stroll among, especially towards sunset, when the light 

 streams soft and mellow through the canopy of foliage. 

 One of the groves raises sad recollections. Scattered 

 about it are small white buildings, something resembling 

 those diminutive temples which the Hindoos often erect 

 near wells or beneath some adjacent tree ; but these 

 small edifices are solid, and are not temples, but 

 memorials, and memorials of sacrifice. Each marks 

 the spot where in former days some widow was im- 

 molated on the funeral pyre of her deceased husband, 

 in other words where a suttee was performed. 



The number of these memorial edifices astonished 

 me, for the population of the town is but scanty, and 

 its foundation does not date back much above a century 

 and a half. 



Everyone has heard of the practice of suttee, but 

 very few Europeans even in India are aware that the 

 practice was not confined to the Hindoos, but to some 

 extent prevailed also among the Indian Mahomedans. 

 On this point the histories leave no doubt. The 

 Emperor Jehangire, in his memoirs, records that in 

 the course of one of his progresses he came on a town 



