On this occasion, she carries a mirror in her left hand, and an arrow in her right, and sings during the procession, saying, that she is going to sleep with her dear husband.  In this manner she continues, surrounded by her kindred and friends till about one or two in the afternoon, when the procession goes out of the city to the side of the river called Nigondin or Toombuddra, which runs past the walls of the city, to a certain spot where this ceremony is usually performed, where there is prepared a large square pit full of dried wood, having a little pinnacle or scaffold close to one side four or five steps up.  On her arrival, a great banquet is prepared, where the victim eats with as much apparent joy as if it were her wedding-day; and at the end of the feast there is dancing and singing so long as she thinks fit.  At length she gives orders of her own accord to kindle the dry wood in the square pit; and when told that the fire is kindled, she takes the nearest kinsman of her husband by the hand, who leads her to the bank of the river, where she puts off her jewels and all her clothes, distributing them among her parents or relations; when, putting on a cloth, that she may not be seen naked by the people, she throweth herself into the river, saying, O! wretches wash away your sins.  Coming out of the water, she rolls herself up in a yellow cloth, fourteen yards long, and again taking the nearest kinsman of her husband by the hand, they go together to the pinnacle at the funeral pile.  From this place she addresses the people, to whom she recommends her children and relations.  Before the pinnacle it is usual to place a mat, that she may not see the fierce fire; yet there are many who order this to be removed, as not afraid of the sight.  When the silly woman has reasoned with the people for some time, another woman takes a pot of oil, part of which she pours on the head of the devoted victim, anointing also her whole body with the same, and then throws the pot into the fire, which the widow immediately follows, leaping into the fiercest of the fire.  Then those who stand around the pile throw after her many great pieces of wood, by the blows from which, and the fierce fire in which she is enveloped, she quickly dies and is consumed.  Immediately the mirth of the people is changed to sorrow and weeping, and such howling and lamentation is set up as one is hardly able to bear.  I have seen many burnt in this manner, as my house was near the gate where they go out to the place of burning; and when a great man dies, not only his widow, but all the female slaves with whom he has had connection, are burnt along with his body.  Also when the baser sort of people die, I have seen the dead husband carried to the place of sepulchre, where he is placed upright; then cometh his widow, and, placing herself on her knees before him, she clasps her arms about his neck, till the masons have built a wall around both as high us their necks.  Then a person from behind strangles the widow, and