The funeral of the husband and the wife took place that afternoon and they were cremated on the same pyre.

The stomach and some portions of the intestines of the deceased lady were sent to the chemical examiner and his report (which arrived a week later) did not disclose anything.

The matter remains a mystery.

It will never be found out what force killed the lady at such a critical moment.  Probably it was the strong will of the Suttee that would not allow her body to be separated from that of her husband even in death.

* * * * *

Another very strange incident is reported from a place near Agra in the United Provinces.

There were two respectable residents of the town who were close neighbours.  For the convenience of the readers we shall call them Smith and Jones.

Smith and Jones, as has been said already, were close neighbours and the best of friends.  Each had his wife and children living with him.

Now Mr. Smith got fever, on a certain very hot day in June.  The fever would not leave him and on the tenth day it was discovered that it was typhoid fever of the worst type.

Now typhoid fever is in itself very dangerous, but more so in the case of a person who gets it in June.  So poor Smith had no chance of recovery.  Of course Jones knew it.  Mrs. Smith was a rather uneducated elderly lady and the children were too young.  So the medical treatment as well as the general management of Mr. Smith’s affairs was left entirely in the hands of Mr. Jones.

Mr. Jones did his best.  He procured the best medical advice.  He got the best medicines prescribed by the doctors and engaged the best nurse available.  But his efforts were of no avail.  On a certain Thursday afternoon Smith began to sink fast and at about eight in the evening he died.

Mr. Jones on his return from his office that day at about four in the afternoon had been informed that Mr. Smith’s condition was very bad, and he had at once gone over to see what he could do.

He had sent for half a dozen doctors, but they on their arrival had found that the case was hopeless.  Three of the doctors had accordingly gone away, but the other three had stayed behind.

When however Smith was dead, and these three doctors had satisfied themselves that life was quite extinct, they too went away with Mr. Jones leaving the dead body in charge of the mourning members of the family of the deceased.

Mr. Jones at once set about making arrangements for the funeral early the next morning; and it was well after eleven at night that he returned to a very late dinner at his own house.  It was a particularly hot night and after smoking his last cigar for the day Mr. Jones went to bed, but not to sleep, after midnight.  The death of his old friend and neighbour had made him very sad and thoughtful.  The bed had been made on the open roof on the top of the house which was a two storied building and Mr. Jones lay watching the stars and thinking.