Page:The Land of the Veda.djvu/393

Rh thought of the English magistrate, a young gentleman of the name of Harding. On the death of the Brahmin, Mr. Harding was successful in persuading the widow not to burn; but twelve months after she was goaded by her family into the expression of a wish to burn with some relic of her husband preserved for the purpose. The pile was prepared for her at Ramnugger, two miles above Benares, on the other side of the Ganges. She was not well secured on the pile, and as soon as she felt the fire she jumped off and plunged into the river. The people ran after her along the bank; but the current carried her toward Benares, where a police boat put off and took her in. Her oiled garments had kept her afloat. The police took her to the magistrate, but the whole city of Benares was in an uproar at the rescue of a Brahmin's widow from the funeral pile. Thousands surrounded Mr. Harding's house, and the principal men of the city implored him to surrender the woman; among the rest was her own father, who declared that he could not support his daughter, and that she had, therefore, better be burned, as her husband's family would not receive her. The uproar was quite alarming to a young man, who felt all the responsibility upon himself in such a fanatical city as Benares, with a population of three hundred thousand people. He long argued the point with the crowd, urging the time that had elapsed, and the unwillingness of the woman, but in vain; until at length the thought struck him suddenly, and he said that the sacrifice was manifestly unacceptable to their god—that the sacred river itself had rejected her, as she had, without being able to swim, floated down two miles upon its bosom, in the presence of them all; and it was, therefore, clear that she had been rejected! Had she been an acceptable sacrifice, after the fire had touched her the river would have received her! This Hindoo reason satisfied the whole crowd. The father said, after this unanswerable argument, he would receive his daughter. So the poor woman was saved.

The question has been raised, To what extent has suttee prevailed? It is very difficult to reach even an approximate reply to this inquiry. Lord Bentinck's efforts for the abolition of the rite