1 DEATH OF JEWAHIR SING. 151
2 her curses and lamentations were renewed. She threw herself
3 and her little son upon the body ; she wept bitterly and tore
4 her loose hair ; she rent her garments until her bosom was
5 exposed to the view of those around. It was with much
6 difficulty that she was, partly by entreaty and partly by force,
7 separated from the corpse, and induced to return to the city.
8 The Punches endeavoured to pacify and console her by assuring'
9 her that the death of her brother was according to God's will, —
10 that they could not avert it, and were not therefore to be consi-
11 dered answerable for it. About noon the Ranee returned to the
12 city, whither also the body of the murdered Wuzeer was carried.
13 That evening- the corpse was burnt in the presence of several
14 sirdars, who came to assist at the ceremony. Two of the
15 late Minister's widows, and three slave-girls, were burnt with
16 the body. A guard of Seik soldiers was in attendance, and
17 the conduct of these men on the occasion was atrocious in
18 the extreme. During the procession the unfortunate women,
19 according to custom, carried money to scatter to the people ;
20 but it was actually forced out of their hands by the armed
21 ruffians who surrounded them. Again, as they mounted the pile,
22 their jewels and trinkets, their ear and nose rings, <fcc. with
23 which they were adorned for the occasion, were violently torn
24 from them by the brutal troops, who answered their shrieks
25 with taunts and jests. One savage, more shameless, if possible,
26 than the rest, actually thrust his hands among the smoke and
27 flames to tear away the golden fringe and embroidery worn
28 by one of the miserable victims on her trousers. Thus insulted
29 and molested, the hapless women could not remain in the posi-
30 tion which custom enjoined as proper and decent for the occa-
31 sion, but were persecuted and disturbed until the rising flames
32 acted as a barrier against furthe. molestation. At this moment,
33 one of them, in a transport of rage and grief at the treatment
34 to which they had been subjected, rose erect amidst the fire
35 and smoke, and in the loud and piercing tones of agony called