Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/120

 88 THE PRACTICE OF SUTTEE only of burning the wife by the side of her dead hus- band, but sometimes of burying her alive in the same grave with his body, is given by the Dutch missionary Abraham Eoger, whose account of India in the first half of the seventeenth century forms a later chapter in this book. The section relating to suttee is inserted here instead of being reserved for its place in that chapter. 1 So soon as the husband dyeth, if the wife prom- iseth of her own accord that she will follow him in death, then the preparations necessary for this business are hastened, for then is there no longer a loophole open for the wife, and then may she have no hope more, nor may the affair suffer any delay, since the wife must be burnt on the same day on which her husband is burnt, when the fire is almost become coals. This is observed very strictly by the Bramines (Brahmans) and Weinsjaes (Vaisyas); but the Settreaes (Khsha- triyas) and Soudraes (Sudras) have a custom that, even though the husband hath died elsewhere and hath been burnt long before, the wife must also be burnt if only they receive a token of the husband's death and are certified thereof. Accordingly, the husband is brought without delay to a pit which is digged without the city and is burnt therein; the wife, well adorned after their fashion, is set upon a seat under a canopy outside the door; bassoons are blown; drums are beaten; she is entertained continually by being given betel to eat; and meanwhile she uttereth the name of God continually. The last woman whom I attended