A SUTTEE. 



covered with the fragrant flowers of the gardenia, or Cape 

 jessamine. On one side was extended the body of the 

 defunct Brahmin, anointed with sweet- smelling ointments, 

 and on the other a vacant space was left for the bride, and a 

 ladder fixed against the side to facilitate her ascent. 



A number of religious ceremonies took place in a tem- 

 porary pavilion near the spot, and shortly the victim, painted 

 in the sacred colours of her caste, in which red predominated, 

 her hair flowing loosely, and chanting her death-song, issued 

 forth at the head of the procession. Drums, tom-toms, and all 

 the discordant elements of Hindoo music, drowned away 

 other sounds that might arise, and with eyes and gestures 

 wildly animated by the effects of fanaticism, and probably 

 " bang," * she moved towards the pile, scattering handfuls of 

 flowers around her on her course, and even on ascending the 

 ladder, some of which I caught and preserved long after- 

 wards, in memorial of this heartrending scene. She then 

 quietly placed herself in a recumbent position beside her 

 husband; more logs were heaped upon the bodies ; the cries 

 of the attendants and the noise of the instruments were 

 redoubled, and amidst them the pile was ignited. Immense 

 volumes of smoke soon hid everything from view, and I hoped 

 and prayed that this poor victim to the grossest and most 

 cruel of superstitions was suffocated, and met a comparatively 

 easy death before the flames touched her body. Be that as 

 it may, a very short time sufficed to reduce the costly pile, 

 the dead Hindoo, and the young and innocent wife to a heap 

 of smouldering ashes. 



Amongst the many and true anecdotes relative to the 

 sagacity and memory of the elephant that I have heard and 

 read of in India and elsewhere, I do not recollect a more 



* An exciting and intoxicating compound, made use of by Orientals on 

 desperate occasions. 



