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man of thirty years of age, nephew to Junabhy Daddah, a person 
of distinction, and Amid of Poonah. Toolsebhai was about twenty 
years of age; her stature above the middle standard, her form ele- 
gant, her features interesting and expressive, and her eyes parti- 
cularly large, full, and commanding: at the solemn moment in 
which I saw her, these beauties were eminently conspicuous; 
notwithstanding her skin was then discoloured with turmeric, her 
hair dishevelled, and wildly ornamented with flowers, and her looks 
like those of one whose senses wandered; or, to come nearer the 
impression, whose soul was already fleeting, and in a state of half- 
separation from the body. 
“ A beautiful little girl, not more than four years old, the fruit of 
their union, survives her parents, thus early removed into another 
state of existence.” 
Such is the simple account of this ceremony by a man of feel- 
ing; man}* relations are published, more highly coloured: the most 
extraordinary and affecting spectacle of this kind is related by 
Bernier, a celebrated French traveller in the seventeenth century, 
who resided many years, as physician, at the court of Aurungzebe. 
During a journey from Ahmedabad to Agra, he witnessed a shock- 
ing tragedy which roused all the feelings of his benevolent heart, 
nor has he suppressed a manly indignation in the recital. A 
young Hindoo widow, attended by five females, surrounded by 
brahmins, was advancing towards the funeral pile of her husband: 
when the usual ceremonies were over, he beheld the young and 
beautiful victim kindle the combustible altar on which she had 
placed herself near her husband’s corpse: the flames were in- 
creased by the oil of sandal, poured in by the ministering priests: 
