furiously, backing them at a year old.  The Rajputs eat no beef or buffalo flesh, even worshipping them; and the Moguls say that the Rajputs know how to die as well as any in the world.  The Banians kill nothing, and are said to be divided into more than thirty different casts, that differ somewhat among them in matters of religion, and may not eat with each other.  All burn their dead; and when the husband dies, the widow shaves her head, and wears her jewels no more, continuing this state of mourning as long as she lives.

When a Rajput dies, his wife accompanies his body to the funeral pile in her best array, attended by all her friends and kindred, and by music.  When the funeral pile is set on fire, she walks round it two or three times, bewailing the death of her husband, and then rejoicing that she is now to live with him again:  After which, embracing her friends, she sits down on the top of the pile among dry wood, taking her husband’s head on her lap, and orders fire to be put to the pile; which done, her friends throw oil upon her and sweet perfumes, while she endures the fire with wonderful fortitude, loose not bound.  I have seen many instances of this.  The first I ever saw was at Surat, the widow being a virgin of ten years old, and her affianced husband being a soldier slain in the wars at a distance, whence his clothes and turban were sent to her, and she insisted on burning herself along with these.  The governor refused to give her permission, which she took grievously to heart, and insisted on being burnt; but they durst not, till her kindred procured leave by giving the governor a present, to her great joy.  The kindred of the husband never force this, but the widow esteems it a disgrace to her family not to comply with this custom, which they may refrain from if they choose:  But then they must shave their heads, and break all their ornaments, and are never afterwards allowed to eat, drink, sleep, or keep company with any one all the rest of their lives.  If, after agreeing to burn, a woman should leap out of the fire, her own parents would bind her and throw her in again by force; but this weakness is seldom seen.

The Banian marriages are made at the age of three years or even under; and two pregnant women sometimes enter into mutual promises, if one of their children should prove male and the other female, to unite them in marriage.  But these marriages are always in the same cast and religion, and in the same trade and occupation; as the son of a barber with the daughter of a barber, and so on.  When the affianced couple reach three years of age, the parents make a great feast, and set the young couple on horseback dressed in their best clothes, a man sitting behind each to hold them on.  They are then led about the city in procession, according to their state and condition, accompanied by bramins or priests and many others, who conduct them to the pagoda or temple; and after going through certain ceremonies there, they are led