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Then she

The Diguar

address the strangers : Examine her well to see if she is lazy or lame or blind, or has any other defects. Look well, friends! So long she was with us, she played about and danced about. It mattered little whether she worked or not." The boy's father or other relative says, "We shall take up whatever has fallen to our lot (lit., fallen on the leaf-plate from which we are eating) whether it be an idler or a decrepit one ". The bride now gets up and bows down at the feet of each one. is carried inside the house on the arms of a relative. then takes up the brass-plate with the bride-price on it and presents it before each of the men of the tanda present there, saying "Look, só-and-sɔ has been paid for to-day ". Every one of them touches the money with his fingers and kisses those fingers. This looks as if the bride-price was originally paid to the tanda community as a whole. The brass-plate with the bride-price is next taken to the thḥāns or spirit-seats of the ṭāndā and each spirit is addressed, saying, "Look! this is the brideprice paid for so-and-so. May she fare well". Finally, the plate with the bride-price is taken to the aḍing of the girl's father's hut and the ancestor-spirits supposed to reside there are similarly invoked, and the plate with the money is left there.

Now all drink liquor purchased with the one rupee and four annas paid for the purpose by the boy's people. In the evening boiled rice and pulse-soup are served to all the guests including the men of the tanda. While they all sit down for their meals, the Naya of the tanda or (if he be not of the same clan as the bride's father) some kinsman of the bride's, and a representative of the boy's people, are seated in the middle of the row, and a leafplate full of boiled rice and pulse-soup is placed before each of them. Before the others begin eating, each of these two men. takes up a handful of boiled rice from his plate and lets fall on the ground one grain after another, saying, "Ne tihing emāpekāning, jōtrā gōjgür herāl hujāl nē tiñing dō emāpekāning Tākchānṛhirā nūtūmtē nē māņḍi emāpekāning bōngāekāning”.

"This (rice) I am giving to-day, O so-and-so, so-and-so (names all deceased ancestors), and all (ancestors) "dead, lost or

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strayed, this to-day I am giving in the name of Tak-chanṛhi. This rice I am giving-I am offering ".

While making this offering, the bridegroom's father addresses by name all his deceased ancestors, and the representative of the bride addresses all her deceased ancestors. The boy and girl are also named and the blessings of their respective ancestor-spirits are invoked for their future welfare.

Then the Naya calls out--" Now, old and young, eat boiled rice in the name of Tak-chanṛhi". All the men now eagerly attack the rice and pulse placed before them in leaf-plates. The Naya and the Diguar besides eating their share (batoāri bhāt) of the meals as members of the tanda, each receives from the hands of the girl herself one khālā (large leaf-plate) of boiled rice and pulse-soup as the perquisite of his office (called 'Nāyā-māṇḍi' and 'Diguārimāṇḍi' respectively), and these they take home.

After the men have eaten, the women take their meal. Then all retire to bed.

Next morning, the girl weaves three wreathes of flowers, and the Diguar makes three garlands of Erendi (castor oil) fruit. When the three guests sit down to breakfast, the girl stands behind them with a cup filled with pounded turmeric diluted in water; and as the men go on eating, she besmears with it the back ends of their waist-cloths. The Diguar also eats that day at the hut of the girl's father. When they have finished eating, the Diguar calls together the men of the fāndā. When all are seated on huntingnets laid out for the purpose, the Diguar places on the neck of each man of the boy's side an Erendi garland and one of the wreathes of flowers woven by the girl. Now the people of the tāndā ask the guests to fix a date when they may visit the boy's tāndā for the Jōm-mānḍi ceremony. Generally, the seventh or ninth day after the Ta k-chanṛki ceremony is fixed for this purpose. Then the guests make obeisance (sālāms) to their hosts (the men of the tanda) which the latter return, and they then take leave of one another.

(iv)—Jōm-māṇḍi.

On the day preceding that fixed for the Jōm-māndi ceremony, the men who are to go to the bridegroom's house for the purpose take out their walking-sticks (lāṭhis) and place them at the door of the bride's father's hut. The bride takes up each stick and hands it over to its respective owner. The men-half a dozen or more in number-ask her, "Which way shall we go?" The girl points to the direction in which the men who had come for the Tak-chanṛhi ceremony went home to their tāndā.

As soon as the party arrive near the bridegroom's house, the Diguar of the bridegroom's (anḍā comes out, takes charge of the walking-sticks of the guests and ties them up in a bundle which is kept inside the hut. Then he brings out a jar or two of water from which the bridegroom pours water on the legs and feet of the guests which the Diguar cleanses by rubbing them with his hands. Hunting-nets are spread out for the guests to sit upon. When they are seated, the bridegroom's people ask them, "What did you see on your way here?" The guests reply, "On the way, we met with a girl and asked her, 'Oh, dear, where is your father gone! The girl answered, My father is gone to catch the rains of heaven' (meaning, to gather thatching-grass). Then we asked her, 'Where is your mother gone?' The girl answered, 'She is gone to take a dead person inside the house ' (meaning, to transplant paddy-seedlings)."

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The bride's people now say, "O friends! A mango tree bore fruit; an old woman told her husband, Get me the mango by throwing a stick at it' (meaning, get me rice-beer to drink). The old man threw a stick at it and the mango fell and the stick came down on the other side of the tree striking down a deer as it fell (suggesting, let a goat be slain for our entertainment)". Men o each party salām those of the other party and enquire about their health and well-being. Then riddles of a certain type known as gānamrea bhanita are asked and solved. For this occasion, five jars of rice-beer were already set abrewing on the return of the three men who had gone to the bride's house for the Tak-chanṛhi ceremony. One of these

Pots of rice-beer is now brought to the angan, strained, and distributed to the guests. This is called the fatigue-removing jar'. After some friendly conversation, the guests are treated to a meal of boiled rice, boiled pot-herbs, and pulse-soup. Then all retire to bed.

Next morning the bride's father, the bride and the bridegroom and the guests bathe themselves. There, a figure like that in figure I on page 66 is drawn on the ground with riceflour; a copper pice is placed on each of the four corners of the figure, and two sal-leaf-plates are placed over the figure, one to the cast of the other. The bridegroom is seated on the leaf-plate to the cast and the bride's father on that to the west. The men of the bridegroom's party now say to those of the bride's side, Look well, friends, examine the bridegroom and see if he is ille or lame or blind or has any other defects". The bridegroom's father replies, "I am satisfied with what has fallen on my plate ". The bridegroom then bows down to the bride's father, and rises from his seat on the figure and proceeds to salam every one else present there. In the meanwhile, the father of the bride and the father of the bridegroom embrace each other, and the men on both sides salām one another.

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Two more jars of rice-beer are now brought out. Men of the bridegroom's side tell the guests, "People lay out rice to dry, mushrooms to dry, bamboo shoots to dry. We are drying up men (by keeping you so long without food)". The guests reply, "No, friends; don't say so. Our people at home are saying of us, they are gone for jōm-māṇdi, they are drinking rice-beer; in a short while they will be slaying goats or deer; in the evening they will cat rice, pulse-soup, and meat "". Now the men on both sides get up and embrace one another and resume their seats. When all are seated again, the Nãyãs of the two parties sit down in the middle, each with a mug of rice-beer placed before him; and from this mug he offers libations to the spirits of the ancestors of bride and bridegroom respectively and invoking their blessings for the success of the jōm-mandi ceremony. The

Nāyās now call upon the guests to do justice to the rice-beer and they fall to with avidity.

Then follows a ceremony of great social importance to the tribe. The bridegroom stretches forward his hands on which is placed a plate made of sal-leaves and over it a brass bowl (lēṭā) filled with water. His father calls upon the men of his tāṇḍā to say if there is in their opinion any social taint or social offence on his part to be expiated by a fine or feast. If the bridegroom's family has been remiss in the past in their social duties (for instance, if they have not given a feast on the occasion of a marriage in the family) or have been guilty of any social offence (e.g., if an unmarried daughter has been guilty of an intrigue with a youth of the same clan or of a different tribe or caste which remains unexpiated), no man of the tāṇḍā will touch the löță unless the bridegroom's people promise to provide the customary feast or pay the customary fine. And in such a case, the bridegroom's father will at once give an undertaking to do what is required of him, and then, and not till then, will the lōṭā be touched by one man of each clan of the bridegroom's taṇḍā and also of the bride's tanḍā. If in the opinion of the people of their tāṇḍā, the bridegroom's family has not been guilty of any social offence or neglect of social duty, a representative of each clan in the tāṇḍā as alsɔ a representative of each clan in the bride's tāṇḍa, touches the lōļā, thereby signifying that they have no objection to drinking water and taking food at the han:ls of the members of the family. Then the bridegroom's father says, "Now, you have touched the lota. Would you eat dry rice grains or would you have them soaked in water?" This is an euphemistic way of saying, "Would you have only unboiled rice to eat or wait for rice to be boiled ?" The guests reply, "We should have rice soaked in water. How could we swallow dry rice?" Then the bridegroom's father says: "All right, you will have rice soaked in water. Shall we look out for pot-herbs (meaning, meat) or not? Shall we pluck edible leaves or not (meaning, shall we slay a goat or other animal)?" Some one of the bride's people replies, “Yes,

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