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and on the decease of the husband, a great contest ensued to de- 
termine which of them had been best beloved : she, to whom that 
honour was ascribed, was gaudily dressed, and then sacrificed, by 
her nearest relation, on the tomb of her husband, with whom she 
was afterwards buried: not to be elected was deemed an affliction 
by the surviving wives, and was imputed to them as a disgrace/' 
This idea certainly prevails among the Hindoos; the memory of 
the wife who burns herself is venerated; the widow who survives 
her husband is condemned to a sort of domestic slavery. No 
immolation of a Hindoo widow took place during my residence at 
Surat; nor was I ever an eye-witness of this extraordinary sacrifice. 
I have heard many relations, and read several authentic manu- 
scripts of the interesting scene; but none more satisfactory than 
the following letter from one of my medical friends, who saw a 
young brahmin go through the dreadful ordeal, and thus feelingly 
describes it. 
“ I have often thought, during my absence from Bombay, that 
it behoved me to write to you ; but I have ever been at a loss for 
a subject of sufficient importance to license a trespass on your 
numerous avocations: one has at length occurred, which, if it can- 
not boast much weight, may not be unacceptable on the score of 
singularity; I shall therefore proceed to describe it to you without 
further exordium : it is an instance of the self-devotion practised 
among the brahmin females of distinction, on the death of their 
husbands. 
“ I was hastily summoned by a brahmin friend yesterday, 
about five in the evening, to be a spectator of this dreadful cere- 
mony. Soon after my conductor and myself had quitted the 
