VII.J BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 985 still. The son who had lighted the pile remained near it until it was in full combustion, and then rushing up the bank threw himself on the ground in a paroxysm of grief. So ended the last Suttee that was lawfully celebrated in the district of Hooghly and perhaps in Bengal.” But sacrifices made by a few, under promptings of extraordinary sentiments, are not such as may be enforced in the case of every widow in a society. The Suttees in later times increased in number from very many causes besides that of affection. Within six or seven centuries before the abolition of the rite, the Hindu widows found their position insecure, as the country was overrun by the Mahomedan conquerers and by the Burmese and Portuguese marauders who seized helpless young widows and carried them away or which was worse, put them to indelible infamy. Even Nawabs and noblemen would sometimes not let go the opportunity to do the same as the robbers did, regarding beautiful Hindu widows. The genealogical works referred to by us in pp. 73—g1 contain many instances of such atrocities. The number of Suttees must have grown largely in proportion owing to these causes. Besides when one family boasted of its Suttees, the other families wanted, for the sake of increasing their prestige, to possess similar records of sacrifice from among their own mem- bers, so what had been in early ages a practice of but rare occurrence became frequent, often under compulsion. The following incident will show to what a heinous extent of barbarity the practice of Suttee might be carried. 124
