BENARES. 
95 
found necessary to obtain from the Jahrjas a solemn 
bond of agreement to abandon this inhuman custom. 
Now, in compliance with his promise, the Jahrja of 
Rajh-Kotti, being apprised that his wife was about 
to be confined, gave orders that if the infant should 
prove to be a female it should be preserved ; and im- 
patient of suspense, he collected a band of his follow- 
ers, and went forth upon a hunting excursion, having 
fully persuaded himself that his virtuous adherence to 
his oath would be rewarded by the gift of a son, it 
being past belief that he should ever be so far afflicted 
as to be under the necessity of bringing up a daughter. 
Having remained absent from home several days, he 
returned to his wife, with some anxiety as to the result 
of the birth ; and when he was informed that the child 
was a daughter, and had been suffered to live, and had 
been nurtured by the mother in compliance with his 
commands, his fury became ungovernable, and with 
blasphemous and idle curses against the whole pan- 
theon of Hindooism, he gave orders for the immediate 
massacre of both the mother and child. When the 
virulence of his wrath was somewhat assuaged, the life 
of the mother was spared at the intercession of the 
Jahrja’s eldest son; but no prayers or remonstrances 
could induce him to spare that of the infant, although 
according to their own observances, it was extreme 
cruelty and disgrace to destroy the child, if suffered to 
live even a few hours after birth. In compliance with 
the monster’s orders, the innocent babe was torn from 
