Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/153

 A MODERN INSTANCE OF SUTTEE 119 He spread a carpet of the slain upon The gory bed of honour, made a prince His pillow, rested joyfully, and since Unto the mansions of the Sun has gone." "I know," she cried " what more ? go on ! go on ! Tell me again about my love, I pray." He said, " What further, mother, can I tell ? He left no foe to dread or praise." "Farewell," She smiled, " my lord will chide me for delay " Sprang on the pyre, and with him passed away.' To show the sporadic, though persistent, survival of the suttee ideal among the folk in our own times, allusion may be made in conclusion to a recent occur- rence in the district of Lahore, which the Bombay news- paper " Jam-e Jamshed," November, 1905, calls " The Most Recent Suttee," and of which it urges a strict investigation. ' It is to be hoped that careful investigations will be made in the case of suttee that has been reported from Lahore last week. The husband of the Kamboh woman is reported to have died two or three years back, and this ought to make the inquiry all the more essen- tial as to whether the woman was led to perform this act of her own free will, or whether she was goaded on to it by others. It has been reported that the woman made the funeral pyre, set fire to it and perished in the flames in the presence of a large number of persons. Who were those persons? Were they all as supersti- tious as herself, and did none of them dare to save