Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/295

RELIGION OF BALI. ^51 a short time before, forty-two women of the one, and thirty-four of the other, were poignarded and burnt in the manner above described ; but on such occasions the princesses of royal blood leap them- selves at once into the flames, as did at this parti- cular time the principal wives of the ^princes in question, because they would look upon them- selves as dishonoured by any one's laying hands on their persons. For this purpose a kind of bridge is erected over the burning pile, which they mount, holding in their hand a paper close to their foreheads, and having their robe tucked up under their arm. As soon as they feel the heat, they precipitate themselves into the burning pit, which is surrounded by a palisade of coco-nut stems. In case their firmness should abandon them at the appalling sight, a brother, or other near relative, is at hand to push them in, and render them, out of affection, that cruel office. •* We were informed, that the first wife of the younger of the two princes just alluded to, who was daughter to the king's sister, asked her father, who was prince of Couta, whether, as she was but three months married, and on account of her ex- treme youth, she ought to devote herself on the funeral pile of her deceased husband. Her fathe^, less alive to the voice of nature than to the pre- judices of his nation, represented to her so strong- ly the disgrace she would, by preferring to live.