THE SUTTEE.

Waikato Times, Volume XI, Issue 886, 26 February 1878, Page 2

THE SUTTEE.

! A great deal of Christian sentiment has been written from time to time about the religious Brahmin rite known as the "Suttee." Mia. sionarios condemn it, religious people inveigh against it, and the world generally holds up to horror the burning' of wives with their husbands' remains. The world, the pious, and the frantic missionary, ate, as usual, wrong. There is really no more healthful custom peculiar t > any uulion than the roasting- of a livs wife simultaneously wi h her her dead husband. Every devout ludmn lady kuows thaty wjjen

her lord dies, she has to accompany him, and the testimony of all firatolass martyrs is to the effect that being roasted alive is productive of corporeal irritation, and is, on the whole, a disagreeable operation. Consequently, the Brahmin female devotee. is somewhat interested m the preservation of her husband's Jife. She never attempts to poison him ; nor does she get him to insure his life m her favor. If he stays out too late at Club, she never drives him to desperation with her reproaches. If he 4s ill, she tends him with the assiduity of one. dozen hired nurses. 3he never lets him fight duels, though she puts tallow on his nose at the slightest appearance of a cold. The Suttee, instead of being abased m this country, should be encouraged. It is the duty of every husband who knows himSelf, to urge upon the Assembly the necesiby of introducing this rite into New J&ealand at once. Had civilwation only adopted it years ago, the elder Mr, Weller heed never, have murmured to Samfvel from the depths of hiVbrfcfeen heart, "Sammy, Wareof widtfers."— Southern Exchange*