A HINDOO FUNERAL. 
21 7 
those who were in its immediate vicinity ; still 
they did not seem to he inconvenienced, hut calmly 
proceeded with the solemn ceremonial. Within the 
square which had been formed, certain mystic rites 
took place to propitiate the spirits supposed to pre- 
side over sepulchres and to have an influence upon 
the happiness or misery of departed souls. When 
these were completed, the body was borne towards 
the pile, which had been carefully erected on a spot 
previously consecrated for the occasion by the of- 
ficiating Brahmin. It consisted of large branches of the 
mango-tree, well besmeared with ghee, rising about two 
feet and a half from the ground. It was squared with 
great exactness and regularity, forming a compact 
body, and the wood was so skilfully disposed that few 
or no interstices were apparent. 
The corpse was now laid upon the pile by four 
pariahs, who alone touch dead bodies in India ; for the 
contact with a corpse is held by all other castes to be 
a pollution from which no one can be purified but by 
undergoing the severest mortifications. It is on such 
occasions only that the poor pariah is tolerated, and 
this because his services are indispensable ; though 
even then no rigid Hindoo will approach him so near 
as to run the risk of coming even within the reach 
of his shadow. The principal mourner, who I under- 
stood was father of the deceased, as soon as the 
pariahs had retired, approached with a lighted torch 
in his right hand and a vessel of water on his left 
shoulder. On reaching the sacred platform on which 
were deposited the remains of an only son, he turned 
his back towards it, applied the torch to the com- 
u 
