A respectable young agricultural capitalist from Biswa, Seetaram, rode along by my side this morning, and I asked him, “over whom these suttee tombs, near Biswa, and other towns were for the most part raised.”—­“Sir,” said he, “they are chiefly over the widows of Brahmins, bankers, merchants, Hindoo public officers, tradesmen, and shopkeepers.”  “Are there many such tombs in Oude, over the widows of Rajpoot landholders?”—­“I have not seen any, sir, and have rarely heard of the widow of a Rajpoot landholder burning herself.”  “No, sir,” said Bukhtawar Sing, “how should such women be worthy to become suttees?  They dare not become suttees, sir, with the murder of so many innocent children on their heads.  Sir, we Brahmins and other respectable Hindoos feel honoured in having daughters; and never feel secure of a happy life hereafter till we see them respectably married.  This, sir, is a duty the Deity demands from us, and the neglect of which we do not believe he can ever excuse.  When the bridegroom comes sir, to fetch our daughter, the priest reads over the marriage-service, and the parents of the girl wash her feet and those of her bridegroom; and, as they sit together after the ceremonies, put into her arms a tray of gold and silver jewels, and rich clothes, such as their condition in life enables them to provide; and then invoke the blessing of God upon their union; and then, and not till then, do they feel that they have done their duty to their child.  What can men and women, who murder their daughters as soon as they are born, ever hope for in this life or in a future state?  What can widows, conscious of such crimes, expect from ascending the funeral pile, with the bodies of their deceased husbands who have caused them to commit such crimes?” “And you think that there really is merit in such sacrifices on the part of widows, who have done their duties in this life?”—­“Assuredly I do, sir; if there were none, why should God render them go insensible to the pain of burning?  I have seen many widows burn themselves in my time, and watched them from the time they first declared their intention to their death; and they all seemed to me to feel nothing whatever from the flames:  nothing, sir, but support from above could sustain them through such trials.  Depend upon it, sir, that no widow of a Rajpoot murderer of his own offspring would ever be so supported; they knew very well that they would not be so; and, therefore, very wisely never ventured to expose themselves to the trial:  faithful wives and good mothers only could so venture.  The Rajpoots, sir, and their wives were pleased at the prohibition, because others could no longer do what they dared not do!” “What do you think, Seetarum?”—­“I think, sir, that this crime of infanticide had its origin solely in family pride, which will make people do almost anything.  These proud Rajpoots did not like to put it into any man’s power to call them salahs or sussoors,* (brothers-in-law or fathers-in-law).