his was
done alternately, till the pile was five feet in height; and the whole was
then strewed with rosin, finely powdered. A white cotton sheet, which had
been washed in the Ganges, was then spread over the pile, and the whole
was ready for the reception of the victim.

"The widow was now admonished, by a priest, that it was time to begin the
rites. She was then surrounded by women, who offered her betel, and
besought her to supplicate favors for them when she joined her husband in
the presence of Ram, or their highest god, and, above all, that she would
salute their deceased friends whom she might meet in the celestial
mansions.

"In the mean time, the body of the husband was taken and washed in the
river. The woman was also led to the Ganges for ablution, where she
divested herself of all her ornaments. Her head was covered with a piece
of silk, and a cloth was tied round her body, in which the priests put
some parched rice.

"She then took a farewell of her friends, and was conducted by two of her
female relations to the pile. When she came to it, she scattered flowers
and parched rice upon the spectators, and put some into the mouth of the
corpse. Two priests next led her three times round it, while she threw
rice among the bystanders, who gathered it up with great eagerness. The
last time she went round, she placed a little earthen burning lamp to each
of the four corners of the pile, then laid herself down on the right side,
next to the body, which she embraced with both her arms; a piece of white
cotton was spread over them both; they were bound together with two easy
bandages, and a quantity of fire-wood, straw, and rosin, was laid upon
them. In the last place, her nearest relations, to whom, on the banks of
the river, she had given her nose-jewels, came with a burning torch, and
set the straw on fire, and in a moment the whole was in a flame. The noise
of the drums, and the shouts of the spectators, were such that the shrieks
of the unfortunate woman, if she uttered any, could not have been heard."

Instances are related of women eighty years of age, or upwards, perishing
in this manner. One case is mentioned, by Mr. Ward, of a Bramin who had
married upwards of a hundred wives, thirty-seven of whom were burnt with
him. The pile was kept burning for _three days_, and when one or more of
them arrived, they threw themselves into the _blazing fire_.

The Pagans worship an immense variety of idols, both animat