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2 lord and husband, were ascending the funeral pile with death-
3 despising intrepidity ; they cowered round the corpse, and were
4 covered with reed mats, on which oil was poured in profusion.
5 This done, fire was set to the funeral pile, so that the poor
6 creatures became suffocated by the smoke and flames before they
7 could utter a cry. In order not to give the reader a false notion
8 of the customs and manners of the Hindoos, it is necessary to
9 observe, that no woman is compelled to be burnt with her
10 husband; they do it by their own free will, and it is a charac-
11 teristic trait, that only those women devote themselves to that
12 dismal ceremony whose fate had decreed them not to be mothers.
13 Perhaps they follow their husbands to the other world, in the
14 hope of obtaining there what was denied them in this sublunary
15 one. But it is not the custom for men to be burnt, either
16 with their wives or with other men ; nevertheless, the minister,
17 Bajah Dyan Sing, insisted upon being burnt with his lord and
18 his wives ; but the welfare of the country depending at that
19 time solely on him, he was prevented from undergoing this ter-
20 rific ceremony. Runjeet Sing, a short time before his death,
21 engaged this minister to assist his son, Kurrek Sing, whom he
22 made heir to the throne, although he must have been persuaded
23 of his incapacity ; and if Kurrek Sing had followed the prudent
24 advice of his father, and had not yielded to the insinuations of
25 his tutor, Sirdar Chet Sing, every thing would have proceeded
26 in a prosperous manner.
27 Before I proceed in my relation of the late eventful occur-
28 rences at Lahore, I must give some more details to such of my
29 readers as may wish to know the particulars of that abominable
30 ceremony of burning the living with the dead, which at present
31 occurs but rarely in places under the English government, by
32 whom it is strictly forbidden. I witnessed the above-mentioned
33 self-sacrifice, of which the following are the details : —
34 Early in the morning subsequent to that on which the death
35 of the maharajah happened, I went down the Tukht (coronation-
36 square), accompanied by Col. Henry Steinbach (lately in the
37 service of the maharajah, Gholab Sing, in Cashmere, now