A local rajah in India complained that then British Commander-in-Chief for India, Sir Charles Napier, had no right to interfere with their custom of burning widows alive as part of the funeral ritual for their late husbands, He insisted that the British cease to interfere with widow burnings. Napier replied with classic British understatement.
- "Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs." - Sir Charles Napier
I like that whole idea of mutual respect for each others' customs.
© 2018 by Tom King
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