THE SUTTEE INFANTICIDE. 233 



most distinguished princes of Marwar, described by Colonel 

 Tod in his second volume. Fifty-eight queens, "the cur- 

 tain wives of affection," determined to offer themselves a 

 sacrifice to Agni, exclaiming, " The world we will abandon, 

 but never our lord !" They went " radiant as the sun, 

 dispensing charity like falling rain," and threw themselves 

 together on one mighty pile, which soon blazed to the 

 skies, and, according to the Hindoo writers, " the faithful 

 queens laved their bodies in the flames, as do the celestials 

 in the lake of Manasawara." It is painful to peruse the 

 expressions of applause and veneration in which their con- 

 duct is mentioned, and of the honour it is supposed to con- 

 fer both on themselves and their deceased spouse. What 

 renders this practice still more revolting is the fact that 

 the son is made the instrument of his mother's death, the 

 ceremonial requiring that his hand should apply the fire to 

 the pile. We shall afterward have occasion to mention 

 the steps taken by the British government for suppressing 

 this frightful superstition. 



Another deplorable result of false religion in India was 

 infanticide. It was to the Ganges chiefly that this barba- 

 rous sacrifice was performed. Not unfrequently, in cases 

 of barrenness, a married pair bound themselves, if blessed 

 with offspring, to doom their first-born to the divinity of 

 the river. Having allowed the child to reach the age of 

 three or four, they led him into the water beyond his depth, 

 and left him to float down the stream. Perhaps some 

 charitable hand might pick him up ; but by his parents, at 

 least, he was never more recognised. Other infants were 

 placed in baskets and hung up on trees, where they were 

 devoured by ants or birds of prey. The British authori- 

 ties, however, have now strictly prohibited this criminal 

 practice. The very frequent destruction of female infants 

 among the Rajpoot tribes in the west of India is imputed 

 by Ward to superstition ; but Colonel Tod and Sir John 

 Malcolm, who had much better information concerning this 

 quarter of India, are convinced that it arises altogether 

 from a foolish pride of birth, and the difficulty of suitably 

 disposing of daughters in marriage. There are other 

 modes by which individuals seek a voluntary death, as by 

 plunging into the Ganges, particularly at the point of its 

 junction with the Jumna, and by exposing themselves to be 



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