Chapter SURPOOSE to SUTTEE of S by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

in these cases, they told me that usually it was not so, but only at times among persons of quality, when some one had left a young and handsome widow, and there was a risk either of her desiring to marry again (which they consider a great scandal) or of a worse mishap,—in such a case the relations of her husband, if they were very strict, would compel her, even against her will, to burn…a barbarous and cruel law indeed! But in short, as regarded Giaccamà, no one exercised either compulsion or persuasion; and she did the thing of her own free choice; both her kindred and herself exulting in it, as in an act magnanimous (which in sooth it was) and held in high honour among them. And when I asked about the ornaments and flowers that she wore, they told me this was customary as a sign of the joyousness of the Mastì (Mastì is what they call a woman who gives herself up to be burnt upon the death of her husband).”—P. della Valle, ii. 671; [Hak. Soc. ii. 275, and see ii. 266 seq.].

1633.—“The same day, about noon, the queen’s body was burnt without the city, with two and twenty of her female slaves; and we consider ourselves bound to render an exact account of the barbarous ceremonies practised in this place on such occasions as we were witness to.…”—Narrative of a Dutch Mission to Bali, quoted by Crawfurd, H. of Ind. Arch., ii. 244–253, from Prevost. It is very interesting, but too long for extract.

c. 1650.—“They say that when a woman becomes a Sattee, that is burns herself with the deceased, the Almighty pardons all the sins committed by the wife and husband and that they remain a long time in paradise; nay if the husband were in the infernal regions, the wife by this means draws him from thence and takes him to paradise.…Moreover the Sattee, in a future birth, returns not to the female sex…but she who becomes not a Sattee, and passes her life in widowhood, is never emancipated from the female state.…It is however criminal to force a woman into the fire, and equally to prevent her who voluntarily devotes herself.”—Dabistan, ii. 75–76.

c. 1650–60.—Tavenier gives a full account of the different manners of Suttee, which he had witnessed often, and in various parts of India, but does not use the word. We extract the following:

c. 1648.—“…there fell of a sudden so violent a Shower, that the Priests, willing to get out of the Rain, thrust the Woman all along into the Fire. But the Shower was so vehement, and endured so long, that the Fire was quench’d, and the Woman was not burn’d. About midnight she arose, and went and knock’d at one of her Kinsmen’s House, where Father Zenon and many Hollanders saw her, looking so gastly and grimly, that it was enough to have scar’d them; however the pain she endur’d did not so far terrifie her, but that three days after, accompany’d by her Kindred, she went and was burn’d according to her first intention.”—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 84; [ed. Ball, i. 219].

Again:

“In most places upon the Coast of Coromandel, the Women are not burnt with their deceas’d Husbands, but they are buried alive with them in holes, which the Bramins make a foot deeper than the tallness of the man and woman. Usually they chuse a Sandy place; so that when the man and woman are both let down together, all the Company with Baskets of Sand fill up the hole above half a foot higher than the surface of the ground, after which they jump and dance upon it, till they believe the woman to be stifl’d.”—Ibid. 171; [ed. Ball, ii. 216].

c. 1667.—Bernier also has several highly interesting pages on this subject, in his “Letter written to M. Chapelan, sent from Chiras in Persia.” We extract a few sentences: “Concerning the Women that have actually burn’d themselves, I have so often been present at such dreadful spectacles, that at length I could endure no more to see it, and I retain still some horrour when I think on’t.…The Pile of Wood was presently all on fire, because store of Oyl and Butter had been thrown upon it, and I saw at the time through the Flames that the Fire took hold of the Cloaths of the Woman.…All this I saw, but observ’d not that the Woman was at all disturb’d; yea it was said, that she had been heard to pronounce with great force these two words, Five, Two, to signifie, according to the Opinion of those who hold the Souls Transmigration, that this was the 5th time she had burnt herself with the same Husband, and that there remain’d but two times for perfection; as if she had at that time this Remembrance, or some Prophetical Spirit.”—E.T. page 99; [ed. Constable, 306 seqq.].

1677.—Suttee, described by A. Bassing, in Valentijn v. (Ceylon) 300.

1713.—“Ce fut cette année de 1710, que mourut le Prince de Marava, âgé de plus de quatre-vingt-ans; ses femmes, en nombre de quarante sept, se brûlèrent avec le corps du Prince.…” (details follow).—Père Martin (of the Madura Mission), in Lett. Edif. edition 1781, tom. xii., pp. 123 seqq.

1727.—“I have seen several burned several Ways.…I heard a Story of a Lady that had received Addresses from a Gentleman who afterwards deserted her, and her Relations died shortly after the Marriage…and as the Fire was well kindled…she espied her former Admirer,and beckned him to come to her. When he came she took him in her Arms, as if she had a Mind to embrace him; but being stronger than he, she carried