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Show ESCAPED THE PYItE. A TIlniLLINO ROMANCE OF HINDOOSTAN. tn I aitrrn Woman Willi Wllil III. luff Sha Via. Doom.. I lo II. llurn.. I on the fun.ral I'jr. i,r ll.r Ani.at.il Inillan I.o-ar. There recently arrived In this couu-lr) couu-lr) from India, via Yokohama, a woman wo-man whose history reads like a romance, ro-mance, the woman Is Mrs. Mammle LnlriM. Her husband Is a Kuraslsn fim laihorc, nnd a Christian, but the woman, although sho dresses In Ku-ropenn Ku-ropenn fashion. Is a staunch imiuoo, who refuses to be converted, end has brought with her from her native Uenares a copper statuette of tho goddess god-dess Khiva, which she worships at leisure, while her husband may be attending at-tending services In the naret l.plt-copsl l.plt-copsl church They tolersto earh other oth-er and live happily together with their thrco beautiful daughters, two ot whom are of their father's creed, while the third, the youngest. Is a devout de-vout worshiper of Shiva and (lanresha. Mrs. Ulros history Is thrilling She , was about to become n vlitlm to tho , terrible suttee of her casto when res- w& MItS. LALItOfl cued by tho man who afterward bo-came bo-came her husband As Is the custom In India, Itameo Khud. while still a toddling child, wss affianced to the son of a friend and neighbor At the ago ot 11, Just on the eve of the children's chil-dren's marrlsge, tho youth ot 13, vrho was to bo (ho bridegroom, died, rnd, according to the Irrevocable laws of her caste, sho wns doomed to bo burned burn-ed on his funeral pyru on the bsnks of tho snered river Jumna, over from the city ot Uenares. As iJilros had much to do with what followed, It Is Just as well ho should tell the story. "I, the son of a Kuropesn father, waa guiding n detachment ot the First Ilcngal cavalry through the Jungles to - -Uenares. White concealed In the bush walling for sunrise wo saw (ho dead youth carried down (o tha water's edge on a bamboo stretcher, and, Judging from tho sort of crowd that had assembled, we concluded that wo wero about to witness a suttee. The body was covered over with n green silk robe for bo was n high-caste llrahmln and placed on a pile ot resinous res-inous sandalwood logs. Then tho cloth was removed, the bier placed on the pyre, with the feet toward tho Jumna, six logs wero laid on tha body, and all wns ready fur tha widow. "I-cd by a relative, Itnmeo walked slowly down tho bank to play her tragic part In tho ceremony, covered with a flowing robe of whlto. A lira-mln lira-mln priest stood at tho head of the body the scene Is before me now as It It wero but yesterday nnd he directed di-rected Ihe proceedings In tha coolest manner possible. Tnklng the rod presented pre-sented her by tho llrahmln In her right hand, Itamen walked three times around the bier and waved It over her head. The llrahmln next banded her a torch, which, though to all appearance ap-pearance not lighted, contained a spark of fire within Very soon Ihe waving of tho torch caught a current and Ignited I could not see tha girl's faco all this time, but I could see that her form shook like an aspen leaf. "The llrahmln now, amid profound stlence, having ordered her to apply tho torch, Itsmce advanced toward the pllo with tottering steps, and In a moment mo-ment the pile was ablais Now came Itamee's time to sacrifice herself, to perish then and thero In tho fierce flames that wero already stretching out their tongues toward her flimsy robe, "Sho hesitated, she trembled, and by command of the priest two mon wore about to throw her on the blsilng pyre, when tho officer commanding the detachment, a young man with a soft heart, ordered his men to charge They obeyed tho order with alacrity, and not a moment too soon, dispersing dispers-ing the sullea puly, which fled to lu boats, leaving Itameo fainting on the river banks. In taking this step (ho officer really disobeyed orders Fortunately For-tunately we found what we had come for. Wo saw that the rebels were fortifying Uenares. As for Itamee, the colonel's wlfo took her under her protection, pro-tection, and she became my wife" |
