in his "Morals" the assertion that "among the Hindus the faithful wives are so ardently devoted to their husbands that they enter into strife and rivalry with each other as to which of them shall enjoy the privilege of the pyre; and the one that is successful in the contest is burnt with her dead husband, while the others extol her good fortune."[1] Ælian, also writing in Greek a century later, repeats the same statement in substance, to the effect that "Hindu wives enter into the same funeral pyre as their dead husbands, and they engage in rivalry with each other for the privilege; and whichever of them obtains the lot is burnt with him."[2]
The Roman statesman, orator, and philosopher, Cicero, among the Latin writers of the first century B.C., breaks forth in his "Tusculan Disputations" with an impassioned utterance against this barbarous Hindu usage, that "when the husband dies, the wives dispute as to which of them loved him most (for polygamy is customary among them), and she that gains the day is escorted in triumph by her household and is placed by the side of her husband on the pyre, while the unsuccessful wife withdraws in dejection."[3] The Latin poet Propertius, a late contemporary of Cicero, regards with poetic sentiment this custom among the Hindus and felicitates the East upon its having wives that contend with each other to die in the flames with their beloved, and "feel it a shame not to be permitted to die, while those who are successful, offer their bosoms
