ft 



346 ON SOME EXTRAORDINARY FACTS, CUSTOMS, &c, 



from it without the intreaty of those on whom Ke is 

 sitting, or the order of the Hakim. Whenever alj the 

 requisites above mentioned are found united, they 

 constitute Dburna; but if any one of them be want- 

 ing, that is not Dburna, but Tuckaza or Dunning': 

 and as no text of the Shatter hath been found con- 

 cerning Dburna, wherefore we have delivered the re- 

 quisites thereof according to the common custom and 

 practice." 



There is some difference in the opinions of other 

 Pandits as to what is understood to constitute Dbur- 

 na; but the quotation which I have inserted, appears 

 to me to contain the most authentic information on 

 this subject. 



The Society will observe that the practice is not 

 specifically pointed out in the Sbaster, but has the 

 sanction of usage only. 



The following instance is of late occurrence. In 

 January 1 794, Mohun Paxreh, an inhabitant of a 

 . district in the province of Benares, sat down in 

 Dburna before the house of some Rajcpoots, for the 

 purpose of obtaining the payment of Birt, or a cha- 

 ritable subsistence to which he had a claim, and in 

 this situation destroyed himself by swallowing poi- 

 son. Some of the relations of the deceased retained 

 his corpse for two days before the house of the Raje- 

 poots 1 who thus were compelled to forgo taking suste- 

 nance, in order to induce them to settle the Birt orx 

 the heir of the deceased Brahmen. 



XXIII. 



