One reason why Hindus are hurried to the cremation ground so quickly, and without waiting to see whether the case is one of trance or suspended animation, is that the relatives are not allowed either to eat or drink while the body remains in the house. If a person touches any article in the house of mourning, that article must be washed and purified. After the cremation all the relatives purify themselves by bathing before they are allowed to eat or drink. Mr. Durga Prasad, editor of the _Harbinger_, Lahore, writes, February 29, 1896:--“I recollect, when about twelve years old, my grandmother, who was held in great esteem for her piety and experience, told me that she was once declared to be dead, and was therefore carried to our crematorium, or burning-place; but when about to be burnt she came back to life.” Mr. Joseph, assistant secretary at the Public Library and Museum, Colombo, told the author that his father, owing to weakness of the heart, was subject to frequent attacks of trance-like insensibility. They passed away by simple treatment in a few hours, but were sometimes quite alarming. He was afraid, owing to the superstitious fear of death among the ignorant classes in Ceylon, and the terror which keeping a corpse, or a person in a state of catalepsy, where volition had ceased, excited, that many were buried or burned alive, as it was the custom, particularly amongst the Mahomedans, to carry the body away a few hours after death. Signs of decomposition quickly appeared in a tropical climate, but this unequivocal mode of verifying death was not often waited for by Moslems. SRI SUMANGALA ON SINHALESE BURIALS IN CEYLON. [BURIAL IN CEYLON.] Sri Sumangala, the venerable High Priest of the Buddhists of Ceylon, and Principal of the College for Buddhist Priests, at an interview the author had with him in January, 1895, stated that among the Sinhalese the chances of burial or cremation of the apparently dead are not frequent. Their customs are such that a corpse is seldom or never removed for burial or cremation before the expiry of twenty-four hours after death is said to have taken place. During that time climatic influence renders signs of decomposition and putrefaction apparent. Only one case came under the observation of the venerable theologian, which was that of a person bitten by a cobra. The man apparently succumbed, but a native specialist, having arrived at the cemetery just before the burial, examined the case, and said that life was _not extinct_, and saved the man from a premature grave. The following is from the _British Medical Journal_, April 26, 1884, p. 844:-- “PREMATURE INTERMENT.