A STRANGE CEREMONY.

Evening Post, Issue 160, 12 August 1865, Page 3

A STRANGE CEREMONY.

A. correspondent of the Bombay Gazttte 'tßfl'tes:— "The other day I witnessed a scene of a really shocking nature, the principals being a living woman and a dead man, of the Cammattee caste. The relation that had existed between the living and the dead was of a left-handed naure. They had lived together for many years as man and wife, when, after suffering from a febride attack for only four ~days the man died, Agreeably to 'the pesuliar custom of their caste, "it was imperative, <ere the corps could be removed for interment, that the sacred fites of Patrimony should be 'performed. The lad intelligence was soon communicated to the "neighbouring resident*, and the loud and Vehement hammering of tom-toms had the desired electric effect of collecing a host of friends and acquaintance, and a -fluctuating stream of passers-by, to the spot. A gooroo,«or priest, btfng summoned, and the necessary prepirations for the celetoratidn of the nfipfials being hurriedly completed, the cefenony commenced. The inanimate "Foran divine" was placed against the outer vail of the verandah of the house in a sittiig posture, attired like a bridegroom, and tie face Bnd hands were besmeared with liqud tumeric. The woman also was clothed like a bride, and adorned with the usual tinsel ornament over the face, whsch, as veil as the arms and the drapery, were daubed over with yellow. She sat opposite the dead, now addressing it light and unmeaning ¦\Vordß-»a8 is customarily don; upoh such ¦ occasions— and then shewing bits of dry ] <cocoanut and squirtrag it en the face. | And thus the ceremony pneeeded and I •continued fo* three or four hours. At length, as the sun was nearinf the horizon, nuptial ceremony was brought to a close , and the preparation for tfie Interment ! commenced* The dead wagdiveated of its j bridal attire, then bathed, md finally laid upon a bier and covered nth a cloth of silk. The face was next rubbed over with ; '«ame red powder, and in the mouth were placed some betel leaves. The widowed bride then looked her last rt the shrouded form of him whom never more she would behold, when, amid agonising snicks and deafening tonvtoming, the bier was lifted Up and the funeral cortege proceeded in *he direction of Sion} one man — a near relative oi the deceased, I presume—preceded the coi'ps, throwing, at intervals, a of pies to the right and to the left, which were being eagerly picked up by a troop of -little arching."