BURYING ALIVE. 
27 
the husband’s body had been probably taken by alli- 
gators^ and she therefore could not go through the ce- 
remony according to prescribed form,, she was spared 
the necessity of dying a death., distinguished indeed in 
her eyes,, but nevertheless truly horrible. 
It is the custom, when a woman of the weaver caste 
sacrifices herself to the manes of her husband, to descend 
with his body alive into the grave, which is dug near 
some sacred river ; but if the parties dwell at a dis- 
tance from any holy stream, then the grave is prepared 
near the most sacred spot in the vicinity. It is dug 
very deep and large ; and, after a number of initiatory 
rites, as unintelligible as they are fantastical, the widow 
takes a formal leave of her friends, who are always pre- 
sent upon these melancholy occasions, and descends into 
the chamber of death. It frequently happens that she 
is so stupified with opium as to be scarcely conscious 
of what she is about, but goes through the necessary 
forms with mere mechanical insensibility. As soon 
as she reaches the bottom of the pit, to which she 
descends by a rude ladder, the latter is withdrawn, 
and she is left alone with the body of her deceas- 
ed husband, generally in a revolting state of decay : 
this she embraces, clasping it to her bosom without 
the slightest expression of disturbance at the effluvia 
it emits. Having finished her disgusting caresses, she 
places it upon her lap, and gives the signal for the 
last act of this shocking scene to commence, which 
is even more dreadful than immolation upon the 
funeral pile. The earth is now deliberately thrown 
upon her, while two persons descend into the grave 
to trample it tightly round the self-devoted sacrificant. 
