Chap. II. from J. B. T 
dred and Friends caft Oil, and other combuftible Drugs, 
upon the Fire, to make it burn more vehemently, that 
the Bodies may be the fooner confumed. In moil Places 
upon the Coaft of Corromandel , the Women are not burnt 
with . their deceafed Hufbands, but they are buried alive 
with them, in Holes which the Bramins make a Foot 
deeper than the talleft of them, Man or Woman. 
Ufually they chufe a fandy Place ; fo that when the 
Man and Woman are both let down together, all the Com- 
pany, with Bafkets of Sand, fill up the Hole above half a 
Foot higher than the Surface of the Ground ; after which 
they jump and dance upon it till they believe the Woman 
to be flifled. When fome of the Idolaters upon the Coaft 
of Corromandel , are upon the Point of Death, their 
Friends do not carry them to the Side of a River, or 
Lake, to cleanle their Souls, but they carry them to the fat- 
teft Cow they can find, and laying the fick Party juft be- 
hind the Cow, they lift up her Tail, and provoke her to 
pifs ; if fhe pifles fo that it falls upon the Face of the 
difeafed Perfon, all the Company are over-joyed, faying, 
that his Soul is happy •, but if the Cow does not pifs to 
wafh the fick Party’s Face, they burn him with a great 
deal of “Sadnefs. If a Cow be fick, the Owner muft be 
careful to lead her to a Pond, or River, for, fhould fhe 
die at his Houfe, the Bramins would fine him. 
The Rajah of Valou having loft this City, and his 
Life, through the Lofs of a Battle gained againft him by 
the King of Vifiapouf s General, he was extremely la- 
mented at Court eleven of his AY ives alfo were no lefs 
concerned for his Death, and refolved to burn themfelves 
when he was burned. TheGeneralof Vifiapours Army un- 
derftanding their Refolution, thought atflrft to divert them 
by promifing them all kind Ufage ; but finding Perfuation 
would not prevail, he ordered them to be fhut up in a 
Room. He who had the Order, going to put it in Ex- 
ecution, the Women, in a Rage, told him, that it was 
to no Purpofe to keep them Prifoners •, for, if they might 
not have Leave to do what they had refolved, in three 
Hours there would not be one of them alive. The Per- 
fon entrufted, laughed at their Threats : But the Keeper 
of thofe Women, opening the Door at the End of the 
three Houfes, found them all ftretched out dead upon the 
Place, without any Mark in the World to be feen that 
they had any Way haftened their own Deaths. 
Two of the moil potent Rajahs of India came to Agra 
in the Year 1642, to do Homage to Shah-Jehan , who 
then reigned •, who, not having acquitted themfelves as 
they ought to have done in the Judgment of the Grand- 
Mafter of the King’s Houfhold, he told one of the Ra- 
jahs one Day, in the Prefence of the King, that they had 
not done well to behave themfelves in fuch a manner to- 
wards fo great a Monarch as was the King his Mafter. 
The Rajah, looking upon himfelf to be a great King, and 
a great Prince, he and ills Brother having brought along 
with them a Train of fifteen or fixteen thouland Horfe, was 
nettled at the bold Reproof which the grand Mafter gave 
him, and drawing out his dagger, flew him upon the Place, 
in the Prefence of the King ; the Grand Mafter falling at 
the Feet of his Brother, who ftood clofe by him, he was 
going about to revenge his Death, but was prevented by 
the Rajah’s Brother, who ftabbed him, and laid him athwart 
his Brother’s Body. The King, who beheld thefe two 
Murders, one on the Neck of another, retired into his Ha- 
ram for fear ; but prefently the Omrahs, and other People, 
fell upon the Rajahs, and cut them to Pieces. 
The King, incenfed at fuch an Attempt committed in 
his Houfe, and in his Prefence, commanded the Rajahs 
Bodies to be thrown into the River, which their Troops 
that they had left about Agra underftanding, threatened to 
enter the City, and pillage it •, fo that rather than hazard the 
City, the King was aavifed to deliver them the Bodies of 
their Princes. When they were to be burned, thirteen 
Women belonging to the two Rajahs Houfes came dancing 
and leaping, and prefently got upon the funeral Pile, hold- 
ing one another by the Hands, and being prefently after 
flifled by the Smoak, fell together into the Fire •, pre- 
lentiy the Bramins threw great Heaps of Wood, Pots of 
Oil, and other combuftible Matter upon them, to difpatch 
them the. fooner. 
A V E R N I E R. . 85 i 
I obferved a ftrange Paffage at Patna, being then with 
the Governor, a young Gentleman about twenty-four 
Years of Age, in his own Houfe. While I was with 
him, in came a young Woman* vei T handibme, and noc 
above twenty-two Years old, who defired Leave of the 
Governour to be burnt with the Body of her deceafed 
Hufband. The Governour, compaffionating her Youth 
and Beauty, endeavoured to divert her from her Refolu- 
tion * but, finding he could not prevail, with a furly Coun- 
tenance he afked her whether fhe underftood what the 
Torment of Fire was, and whether fhe had ever burnt 
her Fingers ? No, no, anfwered fhe more ftoutly than be- 
fore, I do not fear Fire; and to let you know as much, 
fend for a lighted Torch hither : The Governor abomi- 
nating her Anfwer, in a great Paffion, bid her go to the 
Devil. Some young Lords that were with the Governor* 
defired him to try the Woman, and entreated him to call 
for a Torch, which, with much ado, he did ; and a lighted 
Torch was brought : So loon as the Woman law the 
lighted Torch a coming, fhe ran to meet it, and held her 
Hand in the Flame* not altering her Countenance in the 
leaft, ftill fearing her Arm along quite up to the Elbow, 
till her Flelh looked as if it had been broiled ; whereupon 
the Governor commanded her out of his Sight. 
A Bramin coming to Patna , and affembling all his 
Tribe together, told them, that they muft give him 
two thoufand Rupees , and twenty-feven Ells of Callicut, 
to which the Chief among them anfwered, that they were 
poor, and could not polfibly raife fuch a Sum ; howeverf 
he perfifted in his Demand, pofitively affirming unto 
them, that he would ftay there without eating or drink- 
ing, till they brought him the Money and the Cloth. 
With this Refolution, he climbed a Tree, and fetting in 
the Fork between the Boughs, remained there without 
eating or drinking for feveral Days. The Noife of this Ex- 
travagance coming to the Ears of the Dutch Houfe* where 
we lay, we fet Sentinels to watch whether it was true, that a 
Man could fit fo long without Victuals, which he did for 
thirty Days together. The thirty-firft Day of this fo ex- 
traordinary Faft, the Idolaters fearing to kill one of their 
Priefts for Want of granting him his Demand, clubbed 
together, and brought him his twenty-feven Ells of Calli- 
cut, and two thoufand Rupees . So foon as the Bramin 
faw the Money and Cloth, he came down from the Tree, 
and after he had upbraided thofe of his Tribe for Want of 
Charity, he diftributed all the Rupees among the Poor, re- 
ferring only five for fix for himfelf. The Cloth he cut into 
little Pieces, and gave away, keeping only to himfelf as 
much as would juft cover his Nakednefs ; and having made 
his Diftribution, he difappeared on a hidden, and no body 
knows what became of him, though diligent Search was 
made after him. 
When a Chinefe lies at the Point of Death, all his Kin- 
dred and Friends gather about him, and alk him whether 
he intends to go ? They tell him alfo, that if he wants 
any thing, he need but alk and have, let it be Gold, Silver* 
or a Woman. When they are dead, they perform many 
Ceremonies at their Funerals, which confift chiefly in ar- 
tificial Fires, wherein the Chinefe are the moft expert in 
all the World ; fo that he muft be a very poor Man that 
has no Fire-works at his Funeral. Befides that, they pur. 
Money in a little Box, and bury it by the Deceafed, and 
leave good Store of Vi&uals upon the Grave, out of an 
Opinion that they rife and eat ; which the Soldiers of Ba- 
tavia obferving, ufed to fill their Bellies at thefe Graves 
every Time they marched their Rounds. But when the 
Chinefe perceived it, they poifoned the Viduals, to fpoil 
the Dutchmens Feafting. The Townfmen of Batavia 
taking the Soldiers Part, accufed the Chinefe of poifoning 
feveral of the Dutch ; but the Chinefe pleaded* that if the 
Soldiers had over-eat themfelves, or furfeited themfelves 
upon what was left for the Dead to eat, it was none of 
their Fault ; for that they did not leave this Victuals for 
their Soldiers : And befides that, among all the Multi- 
tudes that they had buried, they never had heard the leaft 
Complaint before of any one that ever came to any Harm 
by eating their Food. Thus the Bufinefs was hulfied up* 
nor did the Soldiers dare to pilfer any more. 
Thefe 
