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INTELLIGENCE.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Cruel Superstitions in the East Indies . [ From the Evangelical Magazine ] We have frequently presented to ouv readers tragical accounts of the hurnvig of widows with the dead bodies of their husbands , but there is another
niode of self-destruction , which is practised by the Ybgees , in some parts of tlie country , which is less known is England—that of iruryiTig the toidow Alive with her husband's corpse . The f ollowing instance is related by Mr . Johns , a missionary lately returned from India —
< c On Thursday last , March , 1813 , * t Q o ' clock in the morning , a sick man named Beechanaut was brought by his relatives to the river side , and was laid on the wet mud in expectation of his soon expiring : in this
situation he remained , exposed to the scorching rays of the sun , till about four in the afternoon , when he was immersed up to the breast in the river , and whilst in this position one of his relatives vociferated in his ears the
name of Hurri , Ram , Kishno , Ram . . After some time , on finding that he Was not so near death as they had apprehended , he was again re-placed ori the Wet beach . " The next morning ( Friday ) the s&me ceremony commenced of immersing the sick , and repeating the names 6 f their deities : this was continued
till five o ' clock , when the man expired , being literally murdered by his mar relations . * 'lt being the custom of this sect ( the Yogees ) to bury their dead , preparation was made for the interment of the deceased , a . s also , shocking to relate , of his wife , who was not more than 16 years of age , she having
signified her intention of In ing buried alive witU the dead body of her husband * At six o ' clock they repaired to the place or * interment ,, a little wuy be low * our bungalow at the water side . At nine 1 went to the place and found a > large cuncuurse of people of both stx «\ s collfctcti : some were employed * ii digging h circular giivve , which ^ hen tiui ^ hcd was abeut thirteen 01
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fourteen feet in circumference , antf five and a half in depth , " I could scarcely believe that persons in their senses cou ] d voluntarily be brought to terminate their existence in such a horrid manner , and had
suspected that on these occasions something of a narcotic nature wa « used to deprive the victims of their reason ; but on conversing with her ^ I foqnd her free from any such effects . All efforts to dissuade her from the
desperate purpose of rushing as a suicide into the presence of her Creator , were unavailing . On asking hei * mother , who stood by hex , bow she could divest herself of that feeling which is discernible even anuwigat the most ferocious inhabitant * of the
jungle , who risk their own hve £ tv save their offspring ? bter-replj was , it was her daughter ' s determination 9 and what could she do ? She ^ as theu asked if a person saw his child about to eat some poisonous fruity wo-uid hie not use his authority a » d widest it
from him ? Life was given-11 &feyXsock , and we have no right to take ifc'aWay , or suffer others to f take it awayy but to submit when He call * foi \ iti R& ~ monstrances , lioweveiy - "h ieitjg--ineffectual , I remained a silent spectator of this horrid scene . ; -J i .: < :. ; w
( The dead body was now placed in a sitting posture at theiiottoni of the grave : the young wc ) maiiws& thea brought forward . She held a small basket having beetle leaves i 11 it wifth one hand , with the otber she distributed , during seven circumvolutions about th < e grave , Kdee ( sugar pla&ih ) and Cowries ( ehells used for money ) \ all were anxioity to catch some af this
consecrated donation , The sevanth time that she had walked roi ^ iid ithe grave , she stopped , when a Brahtnia repeated some worda to heiv SheiMJrw lifted up her right hand above her head , with her fore-finger erect , she
waved it in a circuleir mdnuer , pronouncing the words Hunri bole , Hurri bole , in which the surr 6 undiii ^ roultimcle joined her * She then without any reluctance ov dismsiy , uieacended o the bottom of ihfe g ? rave ^ p laced fo « itelf bckind tU * d <; a 4 body df Irtr
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Intelligence.
INTELLIGENCE .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1814, page 186, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2438/page/50/
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