on their husbands. These secondary grounds may have
contributed something to the preservation and enforcement of an idea
based originally on superstitious motives.

13. _Sati_ or burning of widows.

For a widow to remain single and lead an austere and joyless life was
held to confer great honour on her family; and this was enormously
enhanced when she decided to become _sati_ and die with her husband
on the funeral pyre. Though it is doubtful whether this practice is
advocated by the Vedas, subsequent Hindu scriptures insist strongly
on it. It was said that a widow who was burnt with her husband would
enjoy as many years in paradise as there are hairs on the human head,
that is to say, thirty-five million. Conversely, one who insisted
on surviving him would in her next birth go into the body of some
animal. By the act of _sati_ she purified all her husband's ancestors,
even from the guilt of killing a Brahman, and also those of her own
family. If a man died during an absence from home in another country
his wife was recommended to take his slippers or any other article
of dress and burn herself with them tied to her breast. [410]

Great honour was paid to a Sati, and a temple or memorial stone was
always erected to her at which her spirit was venerated, and this
encouraged many pious women not only to resign themselves to this
terrible death but ardently to desire it. The following account given
by Mr. Ward of the method of a _sati_ immolation in Bengal may be
reproduced: [411]

"When the husband's life is despaired of and he is carried to the
bank of the Ganges, the wife declares her resolution to be burnt
with him. In this case she is treated with great respect by her
neighbours, who bring her delicate food, and when her husband is dead
she again declares her resolve to be burnt with his body. Having
broken a small branch from a mango tree she takes it with her and
proceeds to the body, where she sits down. The barber then paints
the sides of her feet red, after which she bathes and puts on new
clothes. During these preparations the drum beats a certain sound by
which it is known that a widow is about to be burnt with the corpse
of her husband. A hole is dug in the ground round which posts are
driven into the earth, and thick green stakes laid across to form a
kind of bed; and upon these are laid in abundance dry faggots, hemp,
clarified butter and pitch. The officiating Brahman now causes the
widow to repe