bernier’s voyage to the east indies.

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felf, fpoke to the people; the confidence with which lhe looked upon us, viewed herlittle cabin, made up of very dry millet-ftraw and fmall wood, went into this cabin andfat down upon the pile, and took her hulband’s head into her lap, and a torch intoher own hand, and kindled the cabin, -whilft I know not how many Brahmans werebufy in kindling the fire round about: to reprefent to you, I fay, all this as it ought,is not poffible for me ; I can at prefent fcarce believe it myfelf, though it be but a fewdays fince I faw it.

’Tis true, that I have feen fome of them, which at the fight of the pile and fire,appeared to have fome apprehenfion, and that perhaps would have gone back, but ’tisoften too late : thofe demons the Brahmans, that are there with their great flicks, afto-nifh them, and hearten them up, or even thruft them in ; as I have feen it done to ayoung woman that retreated five or fix paces from the pile, and to another that wasmuch difturbed when fhe faw the fire take hold of her clothes, thefe executioners thruft-ing her in with their long poles. Yet I have often feen one, that is flill a handfomewoman and had faved herfelf out of their hands, falling into the hands of the Gadous,that fometimes met there in great numbers, when they know that it is fome fair andyoung woman that is to be burnt, and that hath no great kindred, nor much companywith her : for the women that are afraid of the pile, and fly away from it, knowing thatthey cannot be received againft among the Gentiles, nor live with them, becaufe theyrepute them infamous, after they have committed fuch a fault, and brought fuch adifgrace upon their religion ; fuch women, I fay, are ordinarily a prey of this kind ofmen, who are alfo counted infamous in the Indies, and that have nothing to lofe. AMogolian durfl not fave nor receive any, for fear of bringing himfelf into great trouble.Some Portugueze living in fea-ports, where they were ftrongeft, have fometimes car-ried away fome of them. For my part I have often been fo enraged againft thofeBrahmans, that if I durft, I had ftrangled them'. I remember among others, that atLahor , I faw a very handfome and a very young woman burnt: I believe fhe was notabove twelve years of age. This poor unhappy creature appeared rather dead thanalive when lhe came near the pile; fhe Ihook and wept bitterly : mean time three orfour of thefe executioners, the Brahmans, together with an old hag that held her underthe arm, thruft her on, and made her fit down upon the wood, and left lhe Ihouldrun away, they tied her legs and hands, and fo burnt her alive. I had enough to doto contain myfelf for indignation ; but I was forced to content myfelf with deteftingthis horrid religion, and to fay by myfelf, what the poet once faid of fuch another,upon the occafion of Iphigenia, whom her own father Agamemnon facrificed to Dianafor the intereft of the Grecians, amongft whom he was one of the principal leaders,

—Tanturn religio potuit fuadere malorum !

Thefe are certainly very barbarous and cruel cuftoms, but that which the Brahmansdo in fome other places of the Indies is yet more fo : for inftead of burning thofe wo-men that will die upon the death of their hulbands, they bury them to the ground aliveu p to the very throat, and then two or three of them fall at once upon them and wringtheir neck round, and fo choak them, covering them quickly with fome earth, andthen marching over their heads. But let us pafs to fome other cuftoms of thofe

countries.

_ Moft of the Gentiles burn their dead 5 but fome there are, that do no more than'with fome ftraw broil them on a river’s fide, calling them thereupon from the height°f a fteep bank into the water j which I have often feen upon the river Ganges .

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