130 H I N D O 
her from it. Lady Ruffell, with the tendereft humanity, 
fent her l'everal meflages to the lame purpofe'; the infant 
hate of her children, (two girls and a boy, the eldeil not 
four years of :fge,) and the terrors and pain of the death 
lire fought, were painted to her in thd ftrongeft and moll 
lively' colouring; the was deaf to all; ihe gratefully 
thanked lady Rufl'ell, and fent her word, fne had now 
nothing to live for, but recommended her'children to her 
protection. When the’torments of burning were urged, 
fhe, with a refolved and calm countenance, put her finger 
into th'e fire, and held it there a confiderable time; Ihe 
then, with one hand, put fire in the palm of the other, 
fprinkled incenfe on it, and fumigated the Brahmins. The 
conlideration of her children left defiitute of a parent, was 
again, urged to her. She replied, He that made them, will take 
care of them. She- was at lalt given to underhand, fhe 
ihpuld not he permitted to burn; this, for a Ihort fpace, 
fieemed to give her deep affliction : bur foon recollecting 
herfelf, file told them, death was in her power, and that, 
if fne was not allowed to burn, according to the princi¬ 
ples of her call, fhe would ftarve herfelf. Her friends, 
finding her thus peremptory and refolved, were obliged at 
lalt to aflent. ' t 
“ The body of the deceafed was carried down to the 
.water fide early the following morning ; the widow fol¬ 
lowed about ten o’clock, accompanied by three, principal 
Brahmins, her children, parents, and relations, and a nu¬ 
merous concourle of people. 
“The order of leave far her burning,did not arrive 
from Hofleyn Khan, fogidar of Moorlhedabad, until af¬ 
ter one ; and it was .then brought by one of the foubah’s 
own officers, who had orders to lee that ihe burnt volun¬ 
tarily. The time they waited for the order was employed 
in praying with .the Brahmins, and waffling in the Gan¬ 
ges ; as foon as it arrived, Ihe. retired and flayed for the 
fpace. of half an hour in the midit of her female relations, 
amprig.lt whom was her mother ;' Ihe then divefted herfelf 
of her bracelets and other ornaments, and tied them in a 
cloth, which hung like an apron before her ; and was 
conducted by her female relations to one corner of the 
pile. On the pile was an arched arbour formed of dry 
flicks, boughs, and leaves, open only at one end to admit 
her entrance ; in this the body of the deceafed was depo- 
lited, his head at the end oppofite to the opening. At 
the corner of the pile to which ihe had been conducted, 
the Brahmins had made a fmall fire, around which Ihe 
and the three Brahmins fat for fome minutes ; one of them 
gave into her hand a leaf of the bale-tree , (the wood com¬ 
monly confecrated to form part of the funeral pile,) with 
fundry things on it, which ihe threw into the fire ; one 
of the others gave, her a iecond leaf, which ihe held over 
the flame, whilll lie dropped three times lome ghee or but¬ 
ter on it, which melted, and fell into the fire; (thefe two 
operations were preparatory fymbols of her approaching 
diiTolution by fire ;) and, whilll they were performing this, 
the third Brahmin read to her fome portions of the Veda, 
and aiked her fome queftions, to which ihe arifwered with 
a iteady and ferene countenance; but the noife-was fo 
great we could not underltand what ihe laid, although 
we were within a yard of her. Thefe over, fhe was led 
with great folemnity three times round the pile, the Brah- 
miris reading’ before her; when ihe came the third time 
to the fmall fire, (lie flopped, took her rings off her toes, 
and fingers, andput them to her other ornaments : here ihe 
took a folemn majeftic leave of her children, parents, and 
relations ; after which, one of the Brahmins dipped a large 
wick of cotton in fome ghee, and gave it ready lighted 
into her hand, and led her to the open fide of the ar¬ 
bour ; where all the Brahmins fell at her feet. After fhe 
had bleifed them, they retired weeping. By two fteps ihe 
afeended. the pile, and entered the arbour; on her en¬ 
trance ihe made a profound reverence at the feet of her 
hufband., and advanced and feated herfelf by his head ; 
fhe looked, in filent meditation, on hi? face, for the fpace 
of a minute, then’let fire to the arbour in three places; 
.obferving that ihe had let fire to leeward, and that the 
O S T A N. 
flames blew from her, fhe rofe and fet fire to. windward, 
and relumed her flation. Enfign Daniel with his cane fe- 
parated the grafs and leaves on the windward fide, by 
which means we liad a diftinct view of her as fhe fat. 
With what a dignity and undaunted countenance fhe let 
fire to the pile the iaft time, and affirmed her feat, can 
only be conceived; for words cannot convey a juft idea 
of her. The pile being of combuftible matters, the fup- 
porters of the roof were prefeijtly confirmed, and it tum¬ 
bled upon her.” 
Bernier, in his Travels through India, gives a lingu¬ 
lar inftance of the burning of a fair widow, whom no 
perfuafions could move from this horrid act of felf-de- 
votion. We flate the account in the ingenious writer’s 
own words: “ When I was palling from Amadevad to 
Agra, over the lands of the rajahs that are in thole 
parts, there came news to us in a burrough where the. 
caravan relied under the fliade, (flaying "for the cool 
of the evening to march on in their journey,) that a cer¬ 
tain woman was then upon the point of burning herfelf 
with the body of her hufband. I prefently role,"and ran 
to the place where it was to be done, which was a great 
pit, with a pile of wood railed in it, whereon I faw laid 
a dead corpfe, and a woman, which at a diftance feemed 
to me pretty fair, fitting near it on the fame pile, befides 
four or five Brahmins putting the fire to it from all fides; 
five women of a middle age, and well enough drafted', 
holding one another by the hand, and dancing about the 
pit, and a great crowd of people, men and women, 
looking on. The pile of wood was prefently all on fire, 
because ftore of oil and butter had been thrown upon it; 
and I faw at the fame time through the flames, that the 
fire took hold of the clothes of the woman, that were im¬ 
brued with well-fcented oils, mingled with powder of fan- 
dal and faffron. All this I faw, but obferved not that the 
woman was at all difturbed ; yet it was laid, that ffle had 
been heard to pronounce with great force thefe two words, 
five , two, to fignify, according to the opinion of thofe that 
hold the foul’s tranfmigration, that this was the fifth time 
ffle had burnt herfelf with the fame hufband, and that 
there remained but two times for perfection; as if fhe had 
at that time this remembrance, or fome prophetical fpirit. 
But here ended not this infernal tragedy. I thought it was 
only by way of ceremony, that thefe five women fung 
and danced about the pit; but I was altogether furprifed, 
when I faw that, the flame having taken hold of the clothes 
of one of them, fhe call herfelf with her head foremoll 
into the pit; arid that after her another, being overcome 
by the flarne and fmoke, did the like. And my aftoniffl- 
ment redoubled afterwards, when I faw that the remain¬ 
ing three took one another again by the hand, continued 
their dance, without any apparent fears ; and that at length 
they precipated themfelves one after the other into the 
fire, as their companions had done. It troubled me fuf- 
ficiently that I knew not what that meant; but I learnt 
fhortly after that thefe had been five Haves, who having 
feeii their--miftrefs extremely afflicted at the ficknefs of 
her hufband, and heard her promife that fhe would not 
furvive him, but burn herfelf with him, were fo touched 
with companion and tendernefs towards, this their prieftefs, 
that they engaged themfelves in a promile to follow her 
in her refolution, and to burn themfelves with her.” 
A very circumftantial narrative of a fimilar kind, is 
given by Donald Campbell, of Barbreck, efquire, while 
refident at Tanjore, in 179+. He Hates the whole of the 
ceremony, of which he was an eye-witnels, to have been 
as follows : 
“ The place fixed upon for this tragic feene, was a 
fmali iflet on the bank of one of the branches of the river 
CaVery,.about a mile to the northward of the fort of Tan¬ 
jore. When I came to the fpot, I found the viftim, who 
appeared to be not above fixteen, fitting on the ground, 
drelfed in the Gentoo manner, with a white cloth wrapped 
round her, fome white flowers iike jeflamins hanging 
round her neck, and fome of them hanging from her hair. 
[Thefe were the lotos, or water-lily: Nymphaia lotus, 
Liuni] 
