Chapter SURPOOSE to SUTTEE of S by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

him into the Flames in her Arms, where they were both consumed, with the Corpse of her Husband.”—A. Hamilton, i. 278; [ed. 1744, i. 280].

„ “The Country about (Calcutta) being overspread with Paganisms, the Custom of Wives burning themselves with their deceased Husbands, is also practised here. Before the Mogul’s War, Mr. Channock went one time with his Ordinary Guard of Soldiers, to see a young Widow act that tragical Catastrophe, but he was so smitten with the Widow’s Beauty, that he sent his Guards to take her by Force from her Executioners, and conducted her to his own Lodgings. They lived lovingly many Years, and had several Children; at length she died, after he had settled in Calcutta, but instead of converting her to Christianity, she made him a Proselyte to Paganism, and the only part of Christianity that was remarkable in him, was burying her decently, and he built a Tomb over her, where all his Life after her Death, he kept the anniversary Day of her Death by sacrificing a Cock on her Tomb, after the Pagan Manner.”—Ibid. [ed. 1744], ii. 6–7. [With this compare the curious lines described as an Epitaph on “Joseph Townsend, Pilot of the Ganges” (5 ser. Notes & Queries, i. 466 seq.).]

1774.—“Here (in Bali) not only women often kill themselves, or burn with their deceased husbands, but men also burn in honour of their deceased masters.”—Forrest, V. to N. Guinea, 170.

1787.—“Soon after I and my conductor had quitted the house, we were informed the suttee (for that is the name given to the person who so devotes herself) had passed.…”—Sir C. Malet, in Parly. Papers of 1821, page 1 (“Hindoo Widows”).

„ “My Father, said he (Pundit Rhadacaunt), died at the age of one hundred years, and my mother, who was eighty years old, became a sati, and burned herself to expiate sins.”—Letter of Sir W. Jones, in Life, ii. 120.

1792.—“In the course of my endeavours I found the poor suttee had no relations at Poonah.”—Letter from Sir C. Malet, in Forbes, Or. Mem. ii. 394; [2nd edition ii. 28, and see i. 178, in which the previous passage is quoted].

1808.—“These proceedings (Hindu marriage ceremonies in Guzerat) take place in the presence of a Brahmin.…And farther, now the young woman vows that her affections shall be fixed upon her Lord alone, not only in all this life, but will follow in death, or to the next, that she will die, that she may burn with him, through as many transmigrations as shall secure their joint immortal bliss. Seven successions of suttess (a woman seven times born and burning, thus, as often) secure to the loving couple a seat among the gods.”—R. Drummond.

1809.—

“O sight of misery!
You cannot hear her cries…their sound
In that wild dissonance is drowned;…
But in her face you see
The supplication and the agony…
See in her swelling throat the desperate
strength
That with vain effort struggles yet for
life;
Her arms contracted now in fruitless
strife,
Now wildly at full length,
Towards the crowd in vain for pity
spread,…
They force her on, they bind her to the dead.”

Kehama, i. 12.

In all the poem and its copious notes, the word suttee does not occur.

[1815.—“In reference to this mark of strong attachment (of Sati for Siva), a Hindoo widow burning with her husband on the funeral pile is called sutee.”—Word, Hindoos, 2nd edition ii. 25.]

1828.—“After having bathed in the river, the widow lighted a brand, walked round the pile, set it on fire, and then mounted cheerfully: the flame caught and blazed up instantly; she sat down, placing the head of the corpse on her lap, and repeated several times the usual form, ‘Ram, Ram, Suttee; Ram, Ram, Suttee.’”—Wanderings of a Pilgrim, i. 91–92.

1829.—“Regulation XVII.

“A REGULATION for declaring the practice of Suttee, or of burning or burying alive the widows of Hindoos, illegal, and punishable by the Criminal Courts.”—Passed by the G.-G. in C., Dec. 4.

1839.—“Have you yet heard in England of the horrors that took place at the funeral of that wretched old Runjeet Singh? Four wives, and seven slave-girls were burnt with him; not a word of remonstrance from the British Government.”—Letters from Madras, 278.

1843.—“It is lamentable to think how long after our power was firmly established in Bengal, we, grossly neglecting the first and plainest duty of the civil magistrate, suffered the practices of infanticide and suttee to continue unchecked.”—Macaulay’s Speech on Gates of Somnauth.

1856.—“The pile of the sutee is unusually large; heavy cart-wheels are placed upon it, to which her limbs are bound, or sometimes a canopy of massive logs is raised above it, to crush her by its fall.…It is a fatal omen to hear the sutee’s groan; therefore as the fire springs up from the pile, there rises simultaneously with it a deafening shout of ‘Victory to Umbâ! Victory to Ranchor!’ and the horn and the hard rattling drum sound their loudest, until the sacrifice is consumed.”—Râs Mâlâ, ii. 435; [ed. 1878, page 691].

[1870.—A case in this year is recorded by Chevers, Ind. Med. Jurispr. 665.]

1871.—“Our bridal finery of dress and feast too often proves to be no better than the Hindu woman’s