The Poison Used By The Natives On These Occasions, Destroys Life, It Is Reported, In Fifteen Minutes.

The reason of the travellers not meeting with a better reception when they slept at Laatoo, was the want of a chief to that town, the last having followed the old governor of Jenna, to the eternal shades, for he was his slave.

Widows are burnt in India, just as they are poisoned or clubbed at Jenna, but in the former country no male victims are destroyed on such occasions. The original of the abominable custom at Jenna, of immolating the favourite wives, is understood to have arisen from the dread on the part of the chiefs of the country in olden times, that their principal wives, who alone were in possession of their confidence, and knew where their money was concealed, might secretly attempt their life, in order at once to establish their own freedom, and become possessed of the property; that, so far from entertaining any motive to destroy her husband, a woman might on the contrary have a strong inducement to cherish him as long as possible, the existence of the wife was made to depend entirely on that of her lord, and this custom has been handed down from father to son even to the present time. But why men also, who can have no interest to gain on the death of their prince, should be obliged to conform to the same rite, is not to be so easily accounted for.

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