Somewhere around the middle of the 19th century, General Napier was approached by a delegation that protested the British ban on Suttee. Napier responded by saying, "It is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and hang them. Build your funeral pyre and beside it my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your national custom - then we shall follow ours."