Chapter SURPOOSE to SUTTEE of S by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

induta, ad exhortationem dicentis in ignem prosilit.”—N. Conti, in Poggius de Var. Fort. iv.

c. 1520.—“There are in this Kingdom (the Deccan) many heathen, natives of the country, whose custom it is that when they die they are burnt, and their wives along with them; and if these will not do it they remain in disgrace with all their kindred. And as it happens oft times that they are unwilling to do it, their Bramin kinsfolk persuade them thereto, and this in order that such a fine custom should not be broken and fall into oblivion.”—Sommario de’ Genti, in Ramusio, i. f. 329.

„ “In this country of Camboja…when the King dies, the lords voluntarily burn themselves, and so do the King’s wives at the same time, and so also do other women on the death of their husbands.”—Ibid. f. 336.

1522.—“They told us that in Java Major it was the custom, when one of the chief men died, to burn his body; and then his principal wife, adorned with garlands of flowers, has herself carried in a chair by four men…comforting her relations, who are afflicted because she is going to burn herself with the corpse of her husband…saying to them, ‘I am going this evening to sup with my dear husband and to sleep with him this night.’…After again consoling them (she) casts herself into the fire and is burned. If she did not do this she would not be looked upon as an honourable woman, nor as a faithful wife.”—Pigafetta, E.T. by Lord Stanley of A., 154.

c. 1566.—Cesare Federici notices the rite as peculiar to the Kingdom of “Bezeneger” (see BISNAGAR): “vidi cose stranie e bestiali di quella gentilitâ; vsano primamente abbrusciare i corpi morti cosi d’huomini come di donne nobili; e si l’huomo è maritato, la moglie è obligata ad abbrusciarsi viva col corpo del marito.”—Orig. edition page 36. This traveller gives a good account of a Suttee.

1583.—“In the interior of Hindústán it is the custom when a husband dies, for his widow willingly and cheerfully to cast herself into the flames (of the funeral pile), although she may not have lived happily with him. Occasionally love of life holds her back, and then her husband’s relations assemble, light the pile, and place her upon it, thinking that they thereby preserve the honour and character of the family. But since the country had come under the rule of his gracious Majesty [Akbar], inspectors had been appointed in every city and district, who were to watch carefully over these two cases, to discriminate between them, and to prevent any woman being forcibly burnt.”—Abu’l Fazl, Akbar Námah, in Elliot, vi. 69.

1583.—“Among other sights I saw one I may note as wonderful. When I landed (at Negapatam) from the vessel, I saw a pit full of kindled charcoal; and at that moment a young and beautiful woman was brought by her people on a litter, with a great company of other women, friends of hers, with great festivity, she holding a mirror in her left hand, and a lemon in her right hand.…”—and so forth.—G. Balbi, f. 82v. 83.

1586.—“The custom of the countrey (Java) is, that whensoever the King doeth die, they take the body so dead and burne it, and preserve the ashes of him, and within five dayes next after, the wiues of the said King so dead, according to the custome and vse of their countrey, every one of them goe together to a place appointed, and the chiefe of the women which was nearest to him in accompt, hath a ball in her hand, and throweth it from her, and the place where the ball resteth, thither they goe all, and turne their faces to the Eastward, and every one with a dagger in their hand (which dagger they call a crise (see CREASE), and is as sharpe as a rasor), stab themselues in their owne blood, and fall a-groueling on their faces, and so ende their dayes.”—T. Candish, in Hakl. iv. 338. This passage refers to Blambangan at the east end of Java, which till a late date was subject to Bali, in which such practices have continued to our day. It seems probable that the Hindu rite here came in contact with the old Polynesian practices of a like kind, which prevailed e.g. in Fiji, quite recently. The narrative referred to below under 1633, where the victims were the slaves of a deceased queen, points to the latter origin. W. Humboldt thus alludes to similar passages in old Javanese literature: “Thus we may reckon as one of the finest episodes in the Brata Yuda, the story how Satya Wati, when she had sought out her slain husband among the wide-spread heap of corpses on the battlefield, stabs herself by his side with a dagger.”—Kawi-Sprache, i. 89 (and see the whole section, pp. 87–95).

[c. 1590.—“When he (the Rajah of Asham) dies, his principal attendants of both sexes voluntarily bury themselves alive in his grave.”—Ain, edition Jarrett, ii. 118.]

1598.—The usual account is given by Linschoten, ch. xxxvi., with a plate; [Hak. Soc. i. 249].

[c. 1610.—See an account in Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 394.]

1611.—“When I was in India, on the death of the Naique (see NAIK) of Maduré, a country situated between that of Malauar and that of Choromandel, 400 wives of his burned themselves along with him.”—Teixeira, i. 9.

c. 1620.—“The author…when in the territory of the Karnátik…arrived in company with his father at the city of Southern Mathura (Madura), where, after a few days, the ruler died and went to hell. The chief had 700 wives, and they all threw themselves at the same time into the fire.”—Muhammad Sharíf Hanafí, in Elliot, vii. 139.

1623.—“When I asked further if force was ever used