SAMAR. Amber is frequently gathered in con siderable lumps in the vicinity of Samar and the other islands of the Bissaya group of tho Eastern Archipelago, as well as mother-of-pearl, tortoise it is all over. The Pioneer newspaper tella of a leper who had lent his hands and fcet under the ravages of the horrible disease, and belonged to a fatnily of lepers. Ilis father and some of his brothers and sisters had already fallen victims to it, and his immediate deacendants were afflicted with the malady. Ile had no hope of recovery, no wish for further life ; so he 'asked his son to dig his last resting-place, and, dragging himself there, put an end to Ins sufferings.
Cases yearly occur in ono part or other of British India. The Atit of Anjar in Cutch say that their patron saint WAS a Chauhan king of Ajmir, who ended his days by a voluntary death ; Jaiml, a Jhareja Rajput of Kodana, near Tuna, and his wife Tnri Kathiana, about the 16th century, voluntarily perished, and aro worshipped.
Samad'h was practised in Rajputana up till 1868. Tho Political Agent of Serohi furnished a list of instances in the course of six years that had coine to his knowledge, chiefly in the neighbour hood of Motagnon, a border village. Out of nine cases of Samad'h reported, eight of the victims were lepers, the others having been sacrificed, no doubt at their own desire, on account of old ago and poverty. Tho Rao of Serohi issued a proclam ation forbidding the practice, under the penalty of ten years' imprisonment; but in many of the Ulna the persons who dig tho pit and cover up the unfortunate wretch are themselves lepers, and to them death itself would bo welcome, and the Rao would hardly care to introduce any of them into Isis prisons in Serohi.
In the Rajput State of Bikanir, a Samad'h or burying alive occurred at a village called Upni, sixty miles from the chief town of the state. It came about in this way : The Thakur of Sandhwa sent his vakeel to the above-named village to collect revenue. The Siddhs of the place, how
ever, refused to pay, and, in order to intimidate the Thakur, 160 of them collected before his door, squatted down there, and threatened to commit suicide unless he gave way. As the Tha kur held out, they selected two of their number, --a man aged seventy-five, and a woman aged sixty-five,—and buried them alive on tho Thakur's premises. The village lumberdars tried to prevent this crime, and were soundly punished for their Food intention. Twenty-nine Siddhs were taken into custody, and nineteen sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.
Near Ahmadabad, a Brahmacharya Bawa, residing at a place called Beit Sankheidhar, is said to have been a Farcical. who lived in a hut on the verge of the Dhingaishwar Mahadeo tank in the place above mentioned. For twelve years he was in the habit, it is said, of praying for a couple of hours daily, all the while gazing intently at the sun without turn ing his eyes from its scorching rays. At last ho called his creditors together and paid off every pie of his debts. Ho then repaired to the temple known as Dwarka's Mundir, for his last hymn of praise, and thence straight to an out-of-the-way place, where he had previously improvised for hitn Bell a sort of funeral pyre with his own hancls. Ile ascended the pyre with alacrity, performed his own funeral rites by lighting it with his hands, and thus voluntarily burned himself to death. Information of this self-imtnolation was given by a barber to a police-officer, who, on proceeding to the place, found that he was too late, for the Bawa's body shell, and red and black coral ; of the latter kind, shafts are obtained as thick as the finger, and six or eight feet lonu.—Walton's State, p. 38.