Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/515

 SUTLEJ SUITER 495 George Granville Sutherland Leveson Gower (1786-1861), the second duke. The wife of the latter, Harriet Elizabeth Georgiana (born May 21, 1806, died Oct. 27, 1868), a daughter of the earl of Carlisle, and the queen's mistress of the robes for nearly 20 years, was celebrated for her beauty and accomplishments, and pro- moted anti-slavery and other philanthropical movements. The present and third duke is Sir George Granville William Sutherland Lev- eson Gower, born Dec. 19, 1828. SITLEJ, the most easterly of the five rivers of the Punjaub, in British India. It rises in Thibet N. of the Himalaya mountains, about lat. 31 N., Ion. 82 E., flowing N. W. out of Lake Manasarowar, and in the early part of its course is joined by numerous tributaries. After a course of about 200 m. it turns W., and in about lat. 31 10', Ion. 75 4', 550 m. from its source, it unites with the Beas, and the river thence flows S. W. and is called the Ghara until its junction with the Chenaub, 300 m. below, when the united stream takes the name of Punjnud, and joins the Indus after a course of about 50 m., in lat. 28 58', Ion. 70 23'. The upper Sutlej is supposed to be the Hesudrus and the lower the Hyphasis of the ancients. In the upper part of its course the Sutlej is an impetuous torrent, and the sce- nery magnificent. In the Punjaub plain it is from 7 to 30 ft. deep, and from 250 to 500 and 700 yards wide. SUTTEE (Sans, sati, from sat, pure), prop- erly, a chaste and virtuous wife, but common- ly used to designate the .self-immolation of a widow by burning herself with the dead body of her husband. The practice has existed for many centuries, not only in India but in other Asiatic countries. Diodorus Siculus gives an instance which occurred in the army of Eume- nes more than 300 years B. 0., and in India it is certainly of great antiquity, though the pe- riod of its origin is unknown. It was more prevalent there than elsewhere, from the belief encouraged by the Brahmans, and professedly derived from their most sacred books, that it conferred the highest merit not only on the widow herself, but on her dead husband. It was asserted by the Brahmanical writers that every woman who thus burned herself should remain in a region of joy with her husband 35,000,000 years, while otherwise she would have no place in paradise. The prevalence of the practice is to be attributed to belief in this view, rather than to any other influence. A careful study of the Yedas and the Institutes of Manu has shown, however, that these works not only do not command suttee, but implied- ly prohibit the practice. Certain passages of the Veclas supposed to relate to it have been the subject of animated controversy among Anglo-Indian scholars. The practice prevailed long after the East India company came into power. The Mohammedan emperor Akbar prohibited it in the 16th century, but without much effect. In the first quarter of the pres- 772 VOL. xv. 32 ent century several unavailing attempts to re- press it were made by the company, and in the 12 years between 1815 and 1826 there were 7,154 cases of suttee officially reported in Ben- gal alone. In 1829 Lord William Bentinck, governor general, enacted a law declaring all aid, assistance, or participation in any act of suttee to be murder, and punishable as such. This measure created much excitement at first in Bengal, the Brahmans denouncing it with great violence as an interference with their religion, and even sending an agent to England with a large sum of money to procure its re- peal; but it was rigidly adhered to, and the excitement soon subsided. In 1847, during Lord Hardinge's administration, the prohibi- tory edict was extended to the native states in subsidiary alliance with the government of India, and the practice is believed now to be extinct. The mode of performing suttee was much the same throughout India, varying only according to the rank of the parties or the customs of each province. The widow, seat- ing herself by the side of her husband's body, had the sides of her feet painted red, and then bathed herself and dressed in her finest clothes. Meantime a drum was beaten through the adjacent villages. A large company hav- ing assembled, a hole was dug in the ground, and a bed formed of green boughs, on which was reared the funeral pile of dry fagots, hemp, clarified butter, and other combustibles. The widow then gave her ornaments to her friends, painted her forehead, tied red cotton round her wrists, put two new combs in her hair, and, when the body of her husband was placed upon the pile, walked around it seven times, scattering parched rice and cowries, and finally ascended the pile, to which she was se- cured with ropes. The eldest son or the head man of the village usually lighted the pile. In Orissa the pyre was below the level of the ground, and the widow threw herself down upon it. The practice of suttee never pre- vailed S. of the Kistnah. SETTER, a central county of California, com- prising the delta between the Sacramento and Feather rivers; area, 576 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 5,030, of whom 208 were Chinese. It consists chiefly of rich bottom lands, almost the only inequality of surface being the Slitter buttes, an isolated group of three peaks in the north. There is little timber. The chief productions in 1870 were 673,749 bushels of wheat, 26,513 of Indian corn, 452,911 of barley, 14,630 gal- lons of wine, 126,657 Ibs. of wool, 117,875 of butter, and 14,100 tons of hay. There were 4,754 horses, 3,623 milch cows, 4,476 other cattle, 35,078 sheep, and 10,690 swine. Capi- tal, Yuba City. SCTTER, John Angnstus (originally SUTER), an American pioneer, born at Kandern, Baden, Feb. 15, 1803. He graduated at Bern, Switz- erland, as a military officer, and in 1834 emi- grated to America, where he became known as a Swiss. At Santa Fe he carried on for