Star.
London, England, 1821-11-06 00:00:00

three times slowly round the pile; then seating her-
self opposite the entrance, on a small square stone,
constantly used in such cases, on which two feet were
rudely sketched, she received and returned the en-
dearments of her companions with great semi y.
This over, she again stood up, and having stroked
her ri,ht hand in the fondest manner over the heads
of a favoured few, gently inclining her person to.
wards them, she let her arms Cal round their necks•
in a faint embrace, and turned from therm Now
with her hands, indeed, held up to Heaven ; but
with her poor eyes cast, in a gaze of total abstrac-
tion, deep into the den of anguish that awaited her,
she stopped 'awhile—a piteous statue! At length,
without altering a feature, or the least agitation of
her frame, she ascended by the door-way, unassisted,
and lying down, beside her husband's corpse, gave
herself, in the meridian of life and beauty, a victim
to a barbarous and ct ut•lly conseet ated error of mis-
guided faith. As soon as she entered she was hid
from our view by bundles of straw, with which the
aperture was closed up, and all the actors in this tra-
gic scene seemed to vie with each other will should
be most forward in hurtling it to a cunc7usion. At
once, some darkened the air with a cloud of geolol,
some darting their hatchets at the suspending curds,
felled the laden roof upon her, and others eagerly
rushed forward to apply the fatal torch. Happily,
in this moment of insufferable agony, when the mind
must have lost her dominion, and the ear expected
to be pierced by the unavailing cries of Nature, the
welcome din of the trumpet broke forth from every
quarter of the assembly.
" When the conflagration took place, and not till
then, it was fed for a time with large quantities of
ghee, thrown by the nearest a-kin; but, except the
toolsee and straw before mentioned, no combustible
whatever, that I either saw or could hear of, was
used in preparing the pile. It is said to he the cus-
tom, that, as the suttee ascends the pile, she is fur-
nished with a lighted taper, to set fire to it het self ;
and my companion, who was a Brahmin, asserted,
that in this instance it was the case ; but I traced the
whole progress of the ceremony with sn ch.se and
eager a.i attention, that I think I may safely venture
to contradict him.
" As curiosity may be expected to know something
of the subject of this terrible, though; not uncommon
immolation, I have collected die following purled-
lars ;—The Lady's • name was Toolseboy, her hus-
band's Ragaboy Tauntee. He was about 30 years
old, and nephew to Juirtboy Daddah, a person of
distinction its this place. A little girl, about four
years of age, the fruit of their uni,,n, survives them.
Too'.seboy was 19, her stature above the middle stand-
ard, her foi'm elegant, and her features interesting
and expressive; her eyes, in particular, large, IN hi,
and commanding. At the solemn moment in which
alone I saw her, these beatities were eminently con-
' spicuous, notwithstanding her Etc,: was ciscoir,u,ed
with turmeric, her 11:Air dishevelled and wildly orna-
mented with flowers, and her looks, a; they forcibly
struck me throughout the ce.enlany, like t:iosect
whose senses wandered; or, to come nearer the im-
pression, whose stun already fleeting and in a
state of halt separation from toe body."