What can men and women, who murder their daughters as
soon as they are born, ever hope for in this life or in a future
state? What can widows, conscious of such crimes, expect from
ascending the funeral pile, with the bodies of their deceased
husbands who have caused them to commit such crimes?" "And you think
that there really is merit in such sacrifices on the part of widows,
who have done their duties in this life?"--"Assuredly I do, sir; if
there were none, why should God render them go insensible to the pain
of burning? I have seen many widows burn themselves in my time, and
watched them from the time they first declared their intention to
their death; and they all seemed to me to feel nothing whatever from
the flames: nothing, sir, but support from above could sustain them
through such trials. Depend upon it, sir, that no widow of a Rajpoot
murderer of his own offspring would ever be so supported; they knew
very well that they would not be so; and, therefore, very wisely
never ventured to expose themselves to the trial: faithful wives and
good mothers only could so venture. The Rajpoots, sir, and their
wives were pleased at the prohibition, because others could no longer
do what they dared not do!" "What do you think, Seetarum?"--"I think,
sir, that this crime of infanticide had its origin solely in family
pride, which will make people do almost anything. These proud
Rajpoots did not like to put it into any man's power to call them
_salahs_ or _sussoors_,* (brothers-in-law or fathers-in-law).
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