d,
even at the last moment, to deter her from her fatal determination.
But she, at the very threshold of ghastly death, in the last hour of
expiring life, the fatal torch of _Yama_ (Pluto) before her, calmly
ascended the funeral pile and, lying down by the side of her husband
with one hand under his head, and another on his breast, was heard to
call in a half-suppressed voice, 'Hari, Hari,'--a sign of her firm
belief in the reality of eternal beatitude. When she had thus laid
herself on the funeral pyre, she was instantly covered, or rather
choked, with dried wood, while some stout men with bamboos held and
pressed down the pyre, which was by this time burning fiercely on all
sides. A great shout of exultation then arose from the surrounding
spectators, till both the dead and living bodies were converted into a
handful of dust and ashes."[6]

[Footnote 6: "Hindus as They Are."]

The custom of Sati has been outlawed; but the spirit of Sati still
dominates the womanly heart of the Hindu wife.

It is this beautiful blending of piety and wifely devotion which has
been the song of Hindu poets, and the admiration of the Hindu
community, from time immemorial. It is true that a wife dare not utter
the name of her husband. The name of the husband of a Hindu woman was
Faith. When she came to read the Bible, she skipped this word every
time it occurred in her reading. Why should she demean her lord by
pronouncing publicly his sacred name?

And yet, when it comes to matters of religion, her stern piety and her
religious devotion in the home are the most potent factor of the
household; and husband and father will bow to her supremacy in this
realm. All public life and social functions have been proscribed to
her; therefore, does she see to it that in her narrow home sphere,
both religiously and in the training of her children, her influence
shall be supreme. And it is.

It is here that the progress of Christianity is much impeded in India.
A man is often found ready to change his faith, and to abide the
consequence of the same. It is much more difficult for a woman to
transfer her affection. But the conversion of the husband will not
abide in permanence so long as the wife persists in her devotion to
the ancestral faith. The writer has often seen illustrations of this
supremacy of the influence of the woman. But it is not always so. In
1823, a Brahman child was born in Calcutta. When six years old, he
lighted, by torch, the f