Mark Twain's autobiography

[Kym]

No, we wanna know about the one-legged aboriginal man ...

[Stephen Whiteside]

Yeah, I realise that. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure that Mr Twain ever satisfactorily explained the ending of that story. He did tell what happened to the Indian woman who insisted on being burnt alive beside her dead husband, though. That was an interesting tale.

[Heather]

Stephen! You can't go around telling half stories. It's just not right....

What happened to the Indian woman?

[Heather]

Stephen I'm going to do something that's unheard of here.

Are you going to Toolangi this year?

[Stephen Whiteside]

Apparently, Heather, there used to be a tradition in India whereby, upon the death of her husband, the wife would sit beside the funeral pyre, and be burnt alive.

When the British arrived in India they were determined to stamp out this barbaric custom. Mark Twain recorded how it went in one prefecture. The local British governor promptly announced the practice would be banned forthwith. Shortly after, he received a delegation consisting of the sons of an elderly man who had recently died. They explained that the ban was causing unsufferable cruelty. Their mother, no longer allowed to burn herself alive, had placed herself on an island in a nearby river, and was starving herself to death. They begged that she be allowed to burn.

The governor eventually relented. Mark Twain reported an eye-witness account of her subsequent death. (I don't think he witnessed it himself, although he may have.) She sat motionless and silent on the ground surrounded by a sea of flames as they engulfed her.

[Heather]

Oh, gruesome! Taking loyalty just that bit too far.

Heather

[manfredvijars]

Some women are certainly persistant. The bloke probably died to get away from her constant nagging and now she's hot on his tail into the afterlife (pun intended) ... Life (AND Death) can be so unfair sometimes - all he wanted was a head start. Now was that too much to ask?? ...

[Stephen Whiteside]

Yeah, I was discussing it with some friends at work today, actually. Somebody made the point that it came from a time when a woman was nothing without her man - no rights at all, barely even a person, I guess, so she wouldn't want to live after his death. There'd be no point. I guess that makes sense. Still very hard to imagine, though.

[Maureen K Clifford]

but Heather she really had the hots for him.

The practice of Suttee/Sati was supposedly banned in 1829 but apparently was still practised - the modern take on it now seems to be packing yourself with explosives and self detonating IMO equally as stupid

[Bob Pacey]

In Australia it would be akin to cutting up her credit card. !!!!



Bob