Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 January 1915 — IN THE FLAMES OF THE PYRE [ARTICLE]

IN THE FLAMES OF THE PYRE

Disposal of Brahmin Dead a Matter of Infinite Pathos to the Relatives Wpo Watch Rites. Even as w* came opposite, the bearers lifted one of them, all cool and dripping, from the river, and laid It the slim, small figure, so quietly, so content, on a half-built pyre. Brushwood and fagots were built over it and at head and foot and sides the fire was applied. A Brahman directed the rites, flpd once, as the flames mounted and aspired, the brother, who was watching, clutched at his heart as there appeared for a moment, at the top of the pyre, a girl’s face, with closed eyes, and mouth that seemed to smile; then the radiant veil of flame shrouded it again. The Smoke rose in gray whorls and

streamers against the stainless and tender blue of the sky,-and still the brother watched, quiet again and composed; he had given only that one sign to show that be loved her whose .ashes now lay among the charred and smouldering logs. Or rather it was only for the moment that, thinking of days of childhood and dawns by the riverside, he forgot that it was not she who had been consumed in the flames of .the pyre. Then he remembered again, and looking np from the pyre to the dassling river, he saw there on odr boat his friend, the Brahman, smiled to him. —Prom “The Heart of India.” by C. F. Benson, tat the Century.