Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 531

THE BRAHMIN WIDOW
491
A meal and a cloth are again bestowed on a Brahmin by
proxy as it were for the deceased and the day ends in
;
much
the same manner as those preceding it.
It is considered of great importance to preserve carefully
for ten days the three little stones, as well as the pot used
for the cooking of the crows' food.
If by misfortune a
single one of these articles were lost, all the ceremonies
would have to be begun over again.
From the fourth to the ninth day inclusive, these foolish
ceremonies are repeated daily. The objects are (1) to pre-
vent the deceased suffering from hunger, thirst, and naked-
ness
(2) to enable him to divest himself as quickly as
possible of his hideous and ghastly carcase and to assume
a beautiful form, so that, in a new birth, he may be neither
deaf, nor blind, nor dumb, nor lame, nor afflicted with any
bodily infirmity.
On the tenth day the chief mourner rises early to make his
ablutions, constructs a little pandal in his courtyard, causes
rice, peas, and three sorts of vegetables to be cooked there,
prepares the drink called paramanna, and some rice cakes
cooked in water. He places the whole on a large plantain
leaf, with three pieces of saffron on the top.
In short, he
prepares all the articles indispensable for the sacrifices and
pretty
;
offerings
When
which he
is
about to make.
ready, the widow of the deceased, after per-
forming her ablutions, paints her eyelids with antimony,
her forehead with vermilion, her neck with sandalwood-
paste, her arms and legs with saffron
she then puts on her
richest garments, bedecks herself with all her jewels, twines
red flowers in her hair, and hangs garlands of sweet-smelling
flowers round her neck.
The married women surround her,
clasp her by turns in their arms, and weep with her.
The chief mourner, provided with all his sacrificial para-
phernalia, and followed by his relatives and friends, as well
as by the widow and her companions, returns once more to
the burning-ground, where all the preparatory ceremonies
are renewed just as those already described.
This time he
mixes some earth with water, and spreads three coats of
the mud on the three stones, accompanied by mantrams,
adjurations, sacrifices, offerings, &c.
The women present then surround the widow once more,
all is
;