Storia do Mogor 257.9

257.9

When these ceremonies are finished, they turn the body over on its side. As they do so the widow without tears — nay, on the contrary, all radiant and joyous — mounts to the top of the pyre, and lying down on her side, closely embraces her dead husband. At once the relations bind her feet strongly by two ropes to two posts driven into the ground for the purpose. Next they throw some more wood and dried cowdung on the two bodies ; the quantity is almost as much as that beneath them. The woman is then spoken to by her name, and three times distinctly she is called on to say whether she consents to go to heaven. To this she replies in the affirmative. Her answers having been received, they apply a light, and when the bodies have been consumed, each man returns home envying the firmness and constancy which the woman has been granted the felicity of displaying. Widows who on their husband's death lose their modesty, depart as soon as he expires to one of the large towns, and become public courtesans. Some pursue the same course in their husband's lifetime, for which crime there is no legal punishment inflicted in this country. Others who are not filled like the first set with the spirit of honour, nor like the second give themselves over to an abandoned life, remove upon their husband's death to their parents' house, and wait on them like servants. But this condition is not easy to put up with, while, on the other hand, they are keen to preserve their characters.