This Tyrant Also Issued A Proclamation, That If Any
Merchant Happened To Have Any Of The Horses Which Were Taken
In the late
battle, even although they happened to have the Bijanagur mark upon
them, that he would pay for
Them their full values, and give safe
conduct for all who had such to come to his capital. When by this means
he had procured a great number of horses, he put off the merchants with
fair promises, till he saw that no more horses were likely to come, and
he then ordered the merchants to depart without giving them any thing
for the horses. I remained in Bijanagur seven months, though I might
have concluded my whole business in one; but it was necessary for me to
remain until the ways were cleared of thieves and robbers, who ranged up
and down in whole troops.
While I rested there I saw many strange and barbarous deeds done among
these Gentiles. When any noble man or woman dies, the dead body is
burned. If a married man die, his widow must burn herself alive for the
love of her husband, and along with his body; but she may have the
respite of a month, or even of two or three, if she will. When the
appointed day arrives on which she is to be burnt, she goeth out from
her house very early in the morning, either on horseback or on an
elephant, or on a stage carried by eight men, apparelled like a bride,
and is carried in triumph all round the city, having her hair hanging
down about her shoulders, garnished with jewels and flowers, according
to her circumstances, and seemingly as joyful as a bride in Venice going
to her nuptials. On this occasion, she carries a mirror in her left
hand, and an arrow in her right, and sings during the procession,
saying, that she is going to sleep with her dear husband. In this manner
she continues, surrounded by her kindred and friends till about one or
two in the afternoon, when the procession goes out of the city to the
side of the river called _Nigondin_ or _Toombuddra_, which runs past the
walls of the city, to a certain spot where this ceremony is usually
performed, where there is prepared a large square pit full of dried
wood, having a little pinnacle or scaffold close to one side four or
five steps up. On her arrival, a great banquet is prepared, where the
victim eats with as much apparent joy as if it were her wedding-day; and
at the end of the feast there is dancing and singing so long as she
thinks fit. At length she gives orders of her own accord to kindle the
dry wood in the square pit; and when told that the fire is kindled, she
takes the nearest kinsman of her husband by the hand, who leads her to
the bank of the river, where she puts off her jewels and all her
clothes, distributing them among her parents or relations; when, putting
on a cloth, that she may not be seen naked by the people, she throweth
herself into the river, saying, O! wretches wash away your sins. Coming
out of the water, she rolls herself up in a yellow cloth, fourteen yards
long, and again taking the nearest kinsman of her husband by the hand,
they go together to the pinnacle at the funeral pile. From this place
she addresses the people, to whom she recommends her children and
relations. Before the pinnacle it is usual to place a mat, that she may
not see the fierce fire; yet there are many who order this to be
removed, as not afraid of the sight. When the silly woman has reasoned
with the people for some time, another woman takes a pot of oil, part of
which she pours on the head of the devoted victim, anointing also her
whole body with the same, and then throws the pot into the fire, which
the widow immediately follows, leaping into the fiercest of the fire.
Then those who stand around the pile throw after her many great pieces
of wood, by the blows from which, and the fierce fire in which she is
enveloped, she quickly dies and is consumed. Immediately the mirth of
the people is changed to sorrow and weeping, and such howling and
lamentation is set up as one is hardly able to bear. I have seen many
burnt in this manner, as my house was near the gate where they go out to
the place of burning; and when a great man dies, not only his widow, but
all the female slaves with whom he has had connection, are burnt along
with his body. Also when the baser sort of people die, I have seen the
dead husband carried to the place of sepulchre, where he is placed
upright; then cometh his widow, and, placing herself on her knees before
him, she clasps her arms about his neck, till the masons have built a
wall around both as high us their necks. Then a person from behind
strangles the widow, and the workmen finish the building over their
heads, and thus they remain immured in one tomb. Inquiring the reason of
this barbarous custom, I was told that this law had been established in
ancient times as a provision against the slaughters which the women were
in use to make of their husbands, poisoning them on every slight cause
of displeasure; but that since the promulgation of this law they have
been more faithful to their husbands, reckoning their lives as dear to
them as their own, because after the death of their husband their own is
sure soon to follow. There are many other abominable customs among these
people, but of which I have no desire to write.
In consideration of the injury done to Bijanagur by the four Mahometan
kings, the king with his court removed from that city in 1567, and went
to dwell in a castle named _Penegonde_, eight days journey inland from
Bijanagur.
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