1 214 APPENDIX — SUTTEES.
2 the trade by a chief, he suffers an alienation of this branch
3 of his revenue, by the route being changed through the
4 possessions of another, who has the power to protect, and
5 the inclination to encourage the transit of traffic through
6 his domains.*
7 ■ Sikh women do not burn with the corpse of their hus-
8 bands. A single exception occurred in 1805, in the
9 town of Booreeah, on the death of the chief Rae Singh,
10 when his widow made a voluntary sacrifice of herself,
11 rejecting a handsome provision in land. There exists no
12 prohibition against the Suttee. In all cases they are un-
13 derstood to be willing victims, and much real or pretend-
14 ed dissuasion is exercised by the public functionaries,
15 and by friends and relations, to divert the miserable
16 creature from her destructive intentions. That affection
17 and duty have not always place in this class of felo de se,
18 which would explain and extenuate such a deed, and con-
19 vert the offspring of superstition into a noble act of self-
20 devotion, is obvious from the frequency of Suttee, and
21 from the fact that it is not only the favored wife, but a
22 whole host of females, that sometimes are offered up to
23 blaze on the pyre of their deceased lord.f
24 In most cases of Suttee, it will generally be observed,
25 that a slow reluctant promise has been exacted from, or
26 * RiJNJEET Singh became anxious to establish a Copper Mint at Umrit-
27 8ur, and prohibited the importation of pice from Jughadree. The mer-
28 chants of Jughadree retaliated, and withheld the exportation of copper
29 from their town, and gained their point.
30 The llajah of I'utecala has attempted to raise the duties in trade, and
31 failed, from his territory being avoided.
32 t This allusion is made to the frightful scenes, which occurred on the
33 demise of the Hill Uajahs of Kooloo, Nahuu, and Juswoul, aad other
34 places.