Both Men And Women Wash Their
Bodies Every Day Before They Eat, And They Sit Entirely Naked At Their
Food, Excepting Only The Covering Of Modesty.
This outward washing, as
they think, tends to cleanse them from sin, not unlike the Pharisees in
scripture, who would not eat with unwashed hands.
Hence, they ascribe a
certain divine influence to rivers, but above all to the Ganges, daily
flocking thither in great companies, and throwing in pieces of gold and
silver, according to their devotion or abilities, after which they wash
themselves in the sacred stream. Both men and women paint their
foreheads, or other parts of their faces, with red or yellow spots.
In regard to their grosser opinions, they do not believe in the
resurrection of the flesh, and therefore burn the bodies of their dead,
near some river if they can, into which they strew the ashes. Their
widows never marry again; but, after the loss of their husbands, cut
their hair close off, and spend all their remaining life in neglect;
whence it happens, that many young women are ambitious to die with
honour, as they esteem it, throwing themselves for lore of their
departed husbands into the flames, as they think, of martyrdom.
Following their dead husband to the pile, and there embracing his
corpse, they are there consumed in the same fire. This they do
voluntarily, and without compulsion, their parents, relations, and
friends joyfully accompanying them; and, when the pile of this hellish
sacrifice begins to burn, all the assembled multitude shout and make a
noise, that the screams of the tortured living victims may not be heard.
This abominable custom is not very much unlike the custom of the
Ammonites, who made their children pass through the fire to Moloch,
during which they caused certain tabrets or drums to sound, whence the
place was called Tophet, signifying a tabret.
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