ndred and friends
vntill it be one or two of the clocke in the afternoone, then they goe out
of the City, and going along the riuers side called Nigondin, which runneth
vnder the walles of the City, vntill they come vnto a place where they vse
to make this burning of women, being widdowes, there is prepared in this
place a great square caue, with a little pinnacle hard by it, foure or fiue
steppes vp: the foresayd caue is full of dried wood. [Sidenote: Feasting
and dancing when they should mourne.] The woman being come thither,
accompanied with a great number of people which come to see the thing, then
they make ready a great banquet, and she that shall be burned eateth with
as great ioy and gladnesse, as though it were her wedding day: and the
feast being ended, then they goe to dancing and singing a certeine time,
according as she will. After this, the woman of her owne accord, commandeth
them to make the fire in the square caue where the drie wood is, and when
it is kindled, they come and certifie her thereof, then presently she
leaueth the feast, and taketh the neerest kinseman of her husband by the
hand, and they both goe together to the banke of the foresayd riuer, where
shee putteth off all her iewels and all her clothes, and giueth them to her
parents or kinsefolke and couering herselfe with a cloth, because she will
not be seene of the people being naked, she throweth herselfe into the
riuer, saying, O wretches, wash away your sinnes. Comming out of the water,
she rowleth herselfe into a yellow cloth of fourteene braces long: and
againe she taketh her husbands kinseman by the hand, and they go both
together vp to the pinnacle of the square caue wherein the fire is made.
When she is on the pinnacle, shee talketh and reasoneth with the people,
recommending vnto them her children and kindred. Before the pinnacle they
vse to set a mat, because they shall not see the fiercenesse of the fire,
yet there are many that will haue them plucked away, shewing therein an
heart not fearefull, and that they are not affrayd of that sight. When this
silly woman hath reasoned with the people a good while to her content,
there is another women that taketh a pot with oile, and sprinckleth it ouer
her head, and with the same she anoynteth all her body, and afterwards
throweth the pot into the fornace, and both the woman and the pot goe
together into the fire, and presently the people that are round about the
fornace throw after her int