how should we eat boiled rice without any · relish?' Look out for whatever pot-herbs (meaning, meat) you can get." A goat or other animal is now brought out by the bridegroom's father or some other relative. Two men of the bride's father's party step forward; one holds the goat by the legs so as to make it face to the east, the other man slays the goat by severing its neck with an axe. The head of the animal is then cut into pieces and roasted. A piece of the roasted meat is put in a sāl-leaf cover and handed over one to each male guest. Rice-beer is then distributed in leaf-cups. This is called the liquor for the head (of the goat)'. One of the haunches of the animal is set apart for the bride's people to take back to their tāṇḍā.

In the evening, dinner is announced, and all take their seats in the angan; the Naya of the bridegroom's tāṇḍā and the Nāyā or, in his absence, some other respectable elder of the bride's tāndā sit in the middle. Dinner is served first on the sāl-leaf-plates laid out one before each of these two men and then on the plates placed before the other guests. Each of these two men first drops on the ground some grains of boiled rice from their plates in the names of their dead ancestors, saying, as they do so,-"To-day we have come for the jōm-mandi ceremony of so-and-so (the Nāyā of the bridegroom's side names the bridegroom, and the Naya or other elder of the bride's side names the bride); come ye all, O Spirits of our departed ancestors! you and we shall all eat together to-day. May the bride (or bridegroom) remain in health, and may the marriage be prosperous ". After this the two men first eat two mouthfuls of food, and then ask the other guests to begin eating. When dinner is finished, the guests wash their hands and mouths, and chew powdered tobacco-leaves mixed with lime. Then all retire for the night.

Next morning, when breakfast is ready, the men of the bride's tanda are conducted to some neighbouring spring or stream to bathe. Then, after they have finished their breakfast and taken powdered tobacco mixed with lime, the men of the tāṇḍā are assembled. The Diguar of the bridegroom's tāndā

now anoints the men of the bride's tāṇḍā with oil and pounded turmeric, and places a garland of Erendi (castor oil) fruit on the neck and a wreath of flowers round the head of each of those

men.

Now the men of the bridegroom's tāṇḍā, in consultation with the men from the bride's tāṇḍā, fix a date |for bringing ‘lōgōn' from the bride's place. Then the Diguar brings out the sticks of the guests, and after an exchange of salutations with the bridegroom's people, they return to their home. The bride's father pays two pice to the Diguar of the bridegroom's tāṇḍā for thenga-dharouni (the care he took about the sticks) and two pice more for gōr-dhoauni (washing their feet).

(v)-Fixing the Lōgōn.

On the date fixed for the 'lōgōn', three men of the bridegroom's tanda go to the bride's tāṇḍā to

Fixing the 'lōgōn'.

bring 'lōgōn'. As on previous occasions the Diguar takes charge of the sticks of the guests, and the feet of the guests are washed. After taking their evening meal of boiled rice, pot-herbs, etc., and chewing powdered tobacco mixed with lime, the guests retire for the night. Next morning, the Diguar of the tanḍā conducts the guests to some spring or stream where they wash their faces and bathe their bodies. Then they go back to the bride's house where they are treated to a hearty breakfast,-for the lōgōn ceremony must never be performed with an empty stomach. When the guests have taken their breakfast, the men of the tanda are all assembled by the Diguar. The open space (angan) in front of the bride's house is cleaned with earth and water and a female draws on the ground thus cleaned a figure like that previously shown, and a copper pice is placed on each of its four corners and two sal-leaf-plates are placed over it, one to the east of the other. The bride is brought out of the hut on the arms of a female relative and seated on the leaf-plate to the west with her face to the east and the palms of her hands joined together and stretched out before her. The father or other

relative of the bridegroom who has come to settle the lōgōn takes his seat on the leaf-plate to the east with his face turned west towards the bride. A female relative of the bride sits down behind her and covers with her hands the eyes of the bride so that she may not see anybody or anything. The man sitting on the leaf-plate to her east now puts on her out-stretched palms a little arus rice and two small strips of unbleached cotton-thread dyed yellow with turmeric and formed into five knots each. While the rice and threads are put into the hands of the girl, she holds the joined palms of her hand in such a manner that the rice and the threads may at once drop down through the opening between the palms on a leaf-cup placed on the ground underneath. The five knots in the thread indicate that the lōgōn or wedding-day is fixed at the fifth day from that date. The bridegroom's people return to their ṭāṇḍā with one of the knotted threads, leaving in the leaf-cup the other thread for the bride's people.

(vi)-The Chuman or Kissing of the Lōgōn-thread.

The mother of the bride, accompanied by a few other women, now proceeds to make chumán (kissing) of the lōgōn in the following manner. She carries in a flat basket a handful of dhan or unhusked rice, one or two blades of tender grass, and an earthen lamp with a lighted wick in it, and waves the basket three times in front of the leaf-cup containing the lōgōn thread and then places the basket on the ground in front of the leafcup. She next takes up some paddy from the basket and scatters it three times on the lōgōn-thread, and then having warmed the palms of her hands in the flame of the lamp places them over the lōgōn-thread. This process of chumān or 'kissing' of the lōgōn-thread with the heated palms of the hand is repeated three times by the mother of the bride. And each of her companions too successively makes chuman of the lōgōn-thread by scattering on it dhan from the basket three times, and by thrice placing on the lōgōn-thread their hands warmed in the flame of the lamp. Then they return to the hut with the basket.

(vii)-Ascertaining the omens from the Lōgōn-thread.

A māti or magician of the tribe is now asked to read the 'fortune' of the bride from the lōgōn-thread. The mati washes his hands and feet, takes his seat in the angan and begins his operations with a handful of rice and two copper pice placed before him in a new sup or winnowing-basket. The mati mutters invocation after invocation to the spirits, rubs his hand on the rice in the sup, scatters rice several times across his own head which he soon begins to shake violently. Thus he works himself up into a state of ecstasy which the onlookers believe to be a sign of spirit-possession. Now the bride's father interrogates the spirit supposed to have possessed the māti, "What bhut art thou?" he asks. The reply given through the mouth of the māti, is "I am such-and-such a bhut (names)". The father of the bride then places a few grains of rice from the sup on the palm of the māti's hand and tells the supposed spirit,-" Examine the rice and reveal the future luck of so-andso (naming the bride)". The mali now appears to con the rice in his hand intently, turning his hand this way and that way, and then exclaims--" Go, now. It is all right. The girl will prosper in life". He then returns the rice to the bride's father who in his turn places the lōgōa-thread on the hand of the māti, saying,--".O! such-and-such a bhut (names), thou art here. Do thou examine this lōgōn-thread, too?" The mati examines the lōgōn-thread in the same manner and gives it back to the bride's father, saying,--" It is all right, take it to the spirit-seats (thhāns), to all spirits and godlings (bhūt-deōs) in uplands and rocky places (tānr-tikūr) and then take it into your hut ". Either the bride's father or some other member of the family or the Diguar of the tarda now takes up the leaf-cup with the lōgōn-thread in it and carries it to each spiritseat (thhan) and exclaims,-"Look, the lōgōn of so-and-so (names the bride) has been knotted to-day. May she have good luck”. Then he returns to the hut with the lōgōn in the leaf-cup, and distributes some of the rice in it to his tanda-fellows by way of

invitation to the wedding. Invitation to friends and relatives belonging to other ṭānḍās is issued by sending a little turmericdyed rice to them, sometimes with slices of betel-nuts. The leaf-cup with the lōgōn-thread in it is finally deposited in the sacred ading of the hut where the ancestor-spirits are believed to have their seat.

(viii)-Ascertaining the omens from and making Chuman of the Lōgōn at the Bridegroom's tāndā.

Arrived at their ṭāndā, the bridegroom's people place the lōgōn-thread on a leaf-cup on the courtyard of the bridegroom's hut. The courtyard, it may be mentioned, is cleaned beforehand with a coating of mud or, in some places, of cowdung. As was done at the bride's place, a māti tells the fortune of the bridegroom from the lōgōn-thread; the 'kissing' of the lōgōn is done by women; the leaf containing the lōgōn-thread is taken to each spirit-seat in the taṇḍā and the blessings of the spirits are invoked; and finally the lōgōn-thread is deposited in the ading of the bridegroom's hut.

The māti again works himself up into a state of supposed possession by another spirit. A little oil mixed with pounded turmeric is placed in a donā (leaf-cup) before him, and a stone lōṛhā (stone used in pounding turmeric and other condiments) is placed in his hands. He then brings one end of the loṛha in contact with the oil and pounded turmeric in the dōna and with this end of the lōrha anoints the bridegroom's feet, knee-joints, elbows and forehead with oil and turmeric. Thenceforth every evening until the day fixed for the marriage, his female relatives anoint his body with oil mixed with pounded turmeric.

(ix)-Adribās of the Bridegroom.

On the morning of the day when the bridegroom's party is to start for the bride's place (which is usually the day fixed for the marriage), a party of women go in a procession to a neighbouring stream or spring to fetch ceremonial water. The party