Show ce cc Her Husbands Husband's Funeral Pyre ELLO EVERYBODY H HELLO India Land of mystery and and Suttee Suttee Suttee as you know is the quaint little Indian custom of burning the widow on the funeral pyre of her dead husband It is isa isa isa a Hindu practice of long standing and from this gruesome sacrifice the soul of the immolated widow is supposed to receive a special blessing and follow her husbands husband's spirit into that land of greater mystery the mystery the the hereafter The British government has prohibited Suttee for many years but it is suspected that many secret cremations still claim their living vic victims ims Mrs Miriam Richardson of Caldwell N N. N J J. J Jr makes the page today with a tale of Suttee and she knows her stuff Miriam's parents were missionaries in India for a great many years Their gra grass s and mud bungalow was situated in a no mans of trees underbrush and jungle grass inthe in inthe inthe the Central Provinces which was in the heart of a vast jungle district The jungles were infested with wild animals For 20 years of her life she was lulled to sleep by the gruff coughing roars of ot I man-eating man tigers the weird yowling of or cowardly jackals and the insane laughs of hyenas Late one night Miriam says there came a frantic knocking on the v door with calls of at Her mother hastily opened the ilie door thinking that perhaps one of the Christian natives hadle had le ry I c cp p His hand was to light the fire The fire that would consume his bis living Jiving mother and dead father Cather been fatally mauled by a tiger An old native woman stood there wringing her hands Her daughter whose daughter whose husband had just died was died was about to commit Suttee and the woman wanted the help of ot Miriam's father tather and mother to save her Miriam's I Mother lother Starts on Mercy lercy Errand They started at once a night night watchman watchman being being being- left to guard over Miriam l Her fier father grabbed a lantern and the distracted native woman led the way way through a wild jungle path Soon th the beating of toms tom-toms throbbed all around them and they came to a clearing lit by hand torches In the center of ot the clearing Miriam says was a funeral pyre pyre pyre-a a prepared bonfire of ot dried wood on which reposed the body of ot the dead man Around it at respectful distances thronged the native crowd Through the crowd and near the pyre wandered Hindu ind priests their faces bearing the painted ghastly gray ashen marks of ot their calling The native woman pulled my mother to the the women's quarters Miriam writes here no man was allowed My father remained with the men in an effort to dissuade them In the center of a wailing group of women sat the young widow She swayed to and fro moaning and beating her breast breast- with her fists From the dull gleam of her eyes mother knew that she had been drugged and hardly realized the frightful fa fate te that tha t was in store for tor her Mother l went straight to her and putting an arm around the girl gal started a fight against time She wanted to delay matters long enough for the effects of the drug to wear off so that she could reason with the distracted girl Once a little boy his boy his naked body covered with ashes and paint paint interrupted interrupted her The boy was the widows widow's son He lle carried a lighted torch in his little hands bands and he had been sent he said by the priests to get his mother His hand band was to light the fire the fire the fire that wo would d consume his living mother and dead father Can you imagine how that kind of a proposition would appeal to an American mother An innocent youngster being hoodwinked into thinking he was performing a holy act by actually burning his mother alive WITH HIS OWN HAND I Responsibility Shifted to a Child It looks to me as i if the Hindu priests wished to shift the responsibility of at the whole fanatical sacrifice to a child Well anyway the sight of the little child with the torch made Miram's Miriam's Miriam's Mir Mir- iams iam's mother redouble her efforts to stop the whole thing She switched the conversation to the mystical side of Christianity She sang hymns translated into the native tongue and the widow showed sho some signs of ot losing the effects of ot the drug A painted priest appeared in the doorway His eyes flashed in fanatical anger Come it is is time he said But the determined American mother drove him away too She knew that priests are forbidden the tho sanctity of or the women's quarters He left muttering threats as she spoke to his victim of the God he hated The widow was crying quietly now and rind listening Meanwhile Miriam's father was doing his part He was going from group to group pleading group pleading with some threatening some threatening others A few native Christians appeared and helped him The priests rag raged d but all feared red the heavy hand o of British law and soon the missionary had his way The torch was applied to the funeral pyre WITHOUT ITS LIVING VICTIM I. Body of Husband Burned Alone The fire crackled and roared Miriam says Scorched human flesh smelt heavy on the oppressive jungle ar priests air priests sulked sulked but but the body burned alone It was not until the last ember had fallen and the last tom-tom tom had ceased its savage strain that her mot mother er and father started back through the jungle over which the first signs of dawn were creeping The native mother and daughter went with them and cried out their gratitude at every step They promised to become converts to a faith that could win against the ver pO power of the Hindu priests But Dut Mrs l Richardson ends the arm of or the Hindu priests in that superstition ridden land is long Thwarted once it clutched at Its Us victims again The women were spirited away later and when last heard of oC were living Jiving as temple women in the power of the priest whom the they feared cared more than the God of the Christians Mrs Richardson lives in New Jersey now now tar far from the sounds ot of the jungle of India India but but Ill I'll bet she still hears in her sleep the mysterious throbbing of the Hindu tom Dont Don't you Released by Western Newspaper Union |