Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 1.djvu/155

 herself with her husband:" the term S[)u]tēē, here rendered "chaste" is thus explained; "commiserating with her husband in trouble, rejoicing in his joys, neglecting herself when he is gone from home, and dying at his death."

"By the favour of a chaste woman the universe is preserved, on which account she is to be regarded by kings and people as a goddess."

"If the husband be out of the country when he dies, let the virtuous wife take his slippers (or any thing else which belongs to his dress) and binding them, or it, on her breast, after purification, enter a separate fire."

Mothers collect the cowries strewn by a s[)u]tēē as she walks round the pile, ere she fires it, and hang them round the necks of their sick children as a cure for disease.

In the plate entitled "Superstitions of the Natives," fig. 3 represents the cowrie shells. (Cypræa moneta.)

The suttee took place on the banks of the Ganges, under the Bund between the Fort and Raj Ghat, a spot reckoned very holy and fortunate for the performance of the rite.

Several of our friends requested me, in case another suttee occurred, to send them timely notice. Five days afterwards, I was informed that a rānee was to be burned. Accordingly I sent word to all my friends. Eight thousand people were assembled on the suttee-ground, who waited from mid-day to sun-set: then a cry arose—"The mem sāhiba sent us here! the mem sāhiba said it was to take place to-day! see, the sun has set, there can now be no suttee!" The people dispersed. My informant told me what he himself believed, and I mystified some 8000 people most unintentionally.

TEMPLE OF BHAWĀNĪ AND SUTTEES, ALOPEE BAGHGH prev. p.].

In Alopee Baghgh?], in the centre of a large plantation of mango-trees, is a small temple dedicated to Bhawānī; there is no image in it, merely a raised altar, on which victims were, I suppose, formerly sacrificed. Each of the small buildings on the