Page:Deplorable effects of heathen superstition.pdf/18

 She sat there talking with her friends and neighbours, till the pile was ready, which was above an hour, and then went a little distance off, where the deceased was also carried, and were both washed with Ganges water, and had clean clothes put on them. The son of the deceased then put a painted paper crown, or cape, on his father’s head, of the same kind as is usual for them to wear at their marriages ; and a Bramin woman brought four lamps burning, and put of them into the woman’s hand, and placed the other three round her upon the ground: all the time she held the lamp in her hand, the Bramin woman was repeating some prayer to her ; which when finished, she put a garland of flowers round her head, and then gave the son of the deceased, who was standing close by a ring made of grass, which she put upon one of his fingers, and an earthen plate full of boiled rice and plantains mixed up together, which he immediately offered to his deceased father, putting it three times to his mouth, and then in the same manner to his mother, who did not taste it. The deceased was supported all this time, and set upon his breech close by his wife, who never spoke after this, but made three salems to her husband, by putting her hands upon the soles of his feet, and then upon her own head. The deceased was then carried away and put upon the pile, and his wife immediately followed, with a pot under her arm, containing 21 couries, 21 pieces of saffron, 21 pons for betel-nut, and the leaf made ready for chewing : one little piece of iron,