come reunited to their husbands in paradise, and are
there happy, free from all the troubles of this life.'

'But you should not let them have any troubles as widows.'

'If they behave well, they are the most honoured members of their
deceased husbands' families; nothing in such families is ever done
without consulting them, because all are proud to have the memory of
their lost fathers, sons, and brothers so honoured by their
widows.[13] But women feel that they are frail, and would often
rather burn themselves than be exposed all their lives to temptation
and suspicion.'

'And why do not the men burn themselves to avoid the troubles of
life?'

'Because they are not called to it from Heaven, as the women are.'

'And you think that the women were really called to be burned by the
Deity?'

'No doubt; we all believe that they were called and supported by the
Deity; and that no tender beings like women could otherwise
voluntarily undergo such tortures--they become inspired with
supernatural powers of courage and fortitude. When Duli Sukul, the
Sihora[14] banker's father, died, the wife of a Lodhi cultivator of
the town declared, all at once, that she had been a suttee with him
six times before; and that she would now go into paradise with him a
seventh time. Nothing could persuade her from burning herself. She
was between fifty and sixty years of age, and had grandchildren, and
all her family tried to persuade her that it must be a mistake, but
all in vain. She became a suttee, and was burnt the day after the
body of the banker.'

'Did not Duli Sukul's family, who were Brahmans, try to dissuade her
from it, she being a Lodhi, a very low caste?'

'They did; but they said all things were possible with God; and it
was generally believed that this was a call from Heaven.'

'And what became of the banker's widow?'

'She said that she felt no divine call to the flames. This was thirty
years ago; and the banker was about thirty years of age when he
died.'

'Then he will have rather an old wife in paradise?'

'No, sir; after they pass through the flames upon earth, both become
young in paradise.'

'Sometimes women used to burn themselves with any relic of a husband,
who had died far from home, did they not?'

'Yes, sir, I remember a fisherman, about twenty years ago, who went
on some business to Benares from Jubbulpore, and who was to have been
back in two months. Six months passed away without any news of him;