Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/119

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THE WIDOW'S DETERMINATION TO DIE
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her that I should esteem her visit and very willingly give her something; not for wood and fire wherein to burn her self (for her death much displeased me, and I would gladly have disswaded her from it, if I could), but to do something else therewith that her self most lik'd; and I promised her that, so far as my weak pen could contribute, her Name should remain immortal in the World. Thus I took leave of her, more sad for her death than she was, cursing the custom of India which is so unmerciful to Women. Giaccama was a Woman about thirty years of age, of a Complexion very brown for an Indian and almost black, but of a good aspect, tall of stature, well shap'd and proportion'd. My Muse could not forbear from chanting her in a Sonnet which I made upon her death, and reserve among my Poetical Papers.'[1]

AN INDIAN WOMAN WITH A CHARACTERISTIC NECKLACE.

A brief but vivid description of the cruel rite not

  1. ↑ This sonnet has apparently been lost.
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