1 POPULATION, MANNERS, AND CuUSsTONS. 127
2 territory of another chief, it is often difficult to
3 obtain their restitution ; but the solicitations of a
4 punchayt, and the more forcible argument of re-
5 prisals, are in the end efficacious; and the unfor-
6 tunate woman, if she do not in a fit of desperation
7 take opium, or cast herself into a well, is necessi#
8 tated to submit to the law of the land, which she
9 will again violate on the first opportune occasion.
10 Sense of shame or feelings of honour have no
11 place in the breast of a Jat, and the same may be
12 said of men of other low tribes. They will make
13 strenuous exertions for recovery of their wives
14 after they have absconded, and will take them
15 back as often as they can get them, bickering
16 even for the children the woman may have had
17 by her paramour, as some recompense for her
18 temporary absence, and for the expense and
19 trouble they have incurred in the search for her.
20 “There exists no prohibition against the Suttee.
21 In all cases they are understood to be willing
22 victims, and much real or pretended dissuasion is
23 exercised by the public functionaries, and by
24 friends and relations, to divert the miserable
25 creature from her destructive intentions. That
26 affection and duty have not always place in this
27 class of felo de se, which would explain and ex-
28 tenuate such a deed, and convert the offspring of
29 superstition into a noble act of self-devotion, is
30 obvious from the frequency of Suttee, and from