56 SPORTING IN BOTH HEMISPHERES. 



of objections in his best Hindostanee, much in the same way 

 that he would have performed his task before his moonshee, 

 or language master, to all of which the lady listened with a 

 kind of lurking smile, not very complimentary to his powers 

 of persuasion; and when he arrived at the peroration, in 

 which he informed her that if she would renounce, &c., absurd 

 determination, she would be protected by the East India 

 Government, and her pecuniary wants supplied, &c., she 

 answered that, having several lacs of rupees of her own, she 

 was not at all in need of such assistance, and coolly and 

 politely reiterated her fixed resolution to act in conformity 

 with the rules and ordinances of the religion of her fore- 

 fathers. 



Of course the commandant had nothing more to say, and 

 having expressed his regret, salaamed her out of the bunga- 

 low, with a promise to send a military guard to honour the 

 ceremonial by their presence, which I was also myself 

 determined to witness. I must say that there was no 

 appearance of either gross and ignorant superstition about 

 this woman, or of her being acted upon by intimidation, but 

 a calm and dignified resolution and manner that would have 

 done honour to a Roman matron. 



When a woman had thus expressed her determination to 

 burn herself with the dead body of her husband, it was 

 always decisive, although nothing was left undone by the 

 Brahmins and her relatives to keep up her enthusiasm, and 

 work upon her mind, by representations of all the glory she 

 would obtain in this world, and eternal felicity in the one to 

 come, by the sacrifice she was about to make. 



The funeral pile, parts of which was composed of precious 

 and sweet-scented wood, was erected in the sandy and dry 

 bed of the river. A quantity of dry brushwood, straw, and 

 easily inflammable materials, were placed beneath it, and the 

 open surface, at the height of about eight or ten feet, was 



