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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2009
By the ghats in Benares, a young womanappears at the head of a small procession composedof her relations, some priests and a band ofmusicians. The procession moves towards the corpseof a man, draped in cloth and laid out at the edgeof the river. They are observed by an Englishman whoexperiences a mixture of emotions: his horror andmoral outrage do not entirely destroy his delightthat he is about to witness an instance of what heconsiders a most fascinating Hinducustom–sati. The date is October1781, and the Englishman is the artist WilliamHodges.