Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1884-04-16
sTNGLE COPIES TWO GENTS.
wednesday. April is. 1884.
AROUND THE WORLD.
[ooNrNUED FROM FIRST PAGE

TOD. l116 DulIQl0& WIS pEONAASA W bAO
health authorities of the municipality, and
there are some iron furnaces set apart in it
for the incinerating process. But the Him
docs prefer to use their own primitive meth
DDS, and SO the furnaces are unused. The
bodies are burned in the open court referred
to, over hollows scooped In the ground.
When entered two fires were in progress,
but the burning had proceeded SO far that
only sizzling bones were to be seen. A third
funeral pyre was being reared, and the pro-
spective victim, q woman lay beside it in the
hot sun upon the ground. The corpse was
arrayed in a white winding sheet, upon
rude bamboo ladder of light construction.
The woman had died of consumption, and
was the most enaciated human being ever
looked upon. know her weight must have
fallen considerably short of fifty pounds. On
the walls of the building half dozen vul-
lures were perched, watching the operation
with greedy eyes l was told that these birds
never attacked the bodies, but knew better
than that. Do ducks swim? The funeral
pyre was quickly constructed. 1t was about
two feet high. When the logs had been
placed the coolies who we're performing
the work turned back the winding
sheet and bathed the dead woman
in water down to her waist;
Then they fixed around her neck the sacred
thread denoting her caste, and lifting the
body from the shutter upon which it lay, put
it upon the logs. As they were doing SO the
coolie who was handling the head turned to
get something, and let the head twist over
and hang down upon its slender axis in
way which made me grasp at the wall for
support The relatives who sat on their
launches beside the body, five in number,
did not seem to mind this revolving incident
at al, but pointed at the remains and gosslped
as though 1t were some experiment with the
body of brute animal which they were wit
Messing at medical college. The body was
placed on the pile, the thin arms tossed over
the sunken chest, and then another
course of logs was added, covering all except
the Woman's head. One of the relatives was
a woman, and at this point she walled a few
feeble little walls, probably because it was
set down as the proper thing to be done in
the ceremony Then she and a man arose,
II Judge they were the father and mother of
the dead womsn), and taking some ghee or
sacred butter, rubbed it over the face of the
dead and placed a little of it, mixed with
rice in the mouth. After this the two seized
a bundle of faggots that seemed to burn very
easily, placed a lot of live Goals upon the
end and began marching around the body.
Each time that they passed the head they
dropped a live coal upon the face, be-
ginning with the mouth. After q short time
the fash began to sputter and shrivel up in q
way that made my knees weak. The baboo
who was in charge of the work spoke Eng
lish very well, and 1 enjoyed the following
dialogue with him:
''aow many bodies do you burn here on an
average per day?"
well, when there is no special disease
raging, from sixteen to twenty-five. We are
very poorly paid SO that it is all we can dc
/ to get along and live."
''Is this the only crematory in Calcutta?"
tsNo, there is another one further up the
| river. l don't know whether they are as
| poorly paid or not"
| I0OcJ does IL take In hurTn q pr
s'1hree or four hours"
do you consider it healthful?"
mot very, but we wouldn't mind that il
the pay was only better"
What do you do with the bones?" f'They
| are burned to ashes Here is little pile
here, you see. We used to sprinkle these
upon the surface of the Ganges, our sacred
river; but that is now forbidden. You se'
there isn't much of anything left after {
thorough burning. We work very hard, snC
| just barely manage to live by means of tn
bits which We pick up outside of our regular
pay"
''Do they burn the widows alive anywher
in India now, when they are cremating tn
dead husband?" ''You mean Suffice. No
often. The government has prohibits
that, but it is occasionally don
way up north despite the vigilance exercised
You see this hole where the woman is nov
going to be burned ?" ''Yes' 'fWelI tn
was burned right there only afew weeks ago
We made q little something out of that bu
We have got back now into the place wher
we have TO accept anything that comes alon
in order to live''
By this time the mourne<s had lighted tn
straw under the pile Of logs, and tn
flames shot upward the body began to his
and sputter right merrily. Sickene
at the sight, I hastily Withdrew
The audacity of the mans begging has mad
me mad, and neither he nor the s~eepers o
the place who flocked about me received tn
douceur for which they clacmored. I hav
had enough of Indian cremations. Even a
its best it is heartless institution, and judg
ing from the half-burned bodies which Ii
around in the up country, it cannot be speci
ally healthful. The majority of the peopl
are too poor to more than give their dead
bit of scorching, and then leave them O.
the river banks. The hunks of human bod
les may be seen floating in the river, Will
vultures consume them, and then whet thei
beaks upon the bones EMILE