365 



into a well, to drown himself; but having been discovered, timely 

 assistance restored suspended animation, and he was brought be- 

 fore the court. On being asked his reason for committing this 

 rash action, he coolly replied, that several people owed him consi- 

 siderable sums of money, and would not pay him: whereas he was 

 only indebted to one man, who threatened to imprison him if he 

 did not discharge it; which being unable to do, and unwilling to 

 act with the same cruelty to his debtors, he thought it better to lose 

 his life, than his good name; and therefore resolved to leave them 

 all, and enter upon another stage of existence. This affair was 

 soon compromised to general satisfaction. 



Most of the disputes which came before the paunchaut at Dhu- 

 boy were for infringing the rules of caste, encroachments upon 

 sacred territories, misbehaviour of women, or similar offences; 

 which were generally settled by the brahmins. What gave me the 

 greatest trouble and uneasiness, was to prevent, as far as in my 

 power, the suicides frequently committed by young women in a 

 state of pregnancy. A crime generally practised by the higher 

 class of Hindoo widows; who having been married in infancy, 

 and losing their husbands in childhood, were, by the cruel and 

 impolitic laws of Menu, prevented from marrying a second husband, 

 and consequently led into imprudences. Some of these unfor- 

 tunate females, conscious of bringing a disgrace on their family, 

 thus terminated their own existence and that of their unborn in- 

 fant; their bodies were often found in the public wells of the city, 

 and villages in the purgunna, but none of the brahmins in the 

 panchaut, nor any Hindoo officer took the smallest trouble to pre- 



