WIDOWS BURIED ALIVE. 
219 
which,, according to the Hindoo creed., having their 
source in heaven, will waft them thither,* when those 
senseless atoms shall be reunited to the disembodied 
spirit and enjoy with it an immortality of uninter- 
rupted beatitude. 
Upon these solemn occasions the ministering Brah- 
min exacts a considerable fee. From a family in but 
moderate circumstances he would think a hundred 
rupees no more than a reasonable demand ; and what- 
ever he does demand is paid without a murmur on 
the supposition that so sacred a person cannot be guilty 
of extortion. Funerals therefore, where the parties can 
afford to pay, are always attended with great expense. 
There was no suttee in this instance, although the de- 
ceased left a young widow ; that barbarous custom 
having been almost abolished in this part of the 
country. 
Sonnerat mentions that in some places the widow, 
instead of burning herself on the husband’s funeral- 
pile, buries herself alive, in order to be immediately 
united to him in paradise. When they are buried 
alive,” says this observing traveller, " the same cere- 
monies are observed before they are conducted to the 
place of interment as when they bum themselves. So 
soon as the person who is the object of the sacrifice has 
arrived, she descends into a place of the form of a 
small cellar, and takes the body of her husband in her 
arms. The ditch is immediately filled with earth up 
to the woman’s neck ; a carpet is laid before her to 
* The Hindoos imagine that as the Ganges has its source in 
heaven, its waters finally return thither, after purifying the souls 
of men upon earth. 
