There is creature with a curved stick fixed to its rump. It

never puts the stick aside.

Answer.-Setā (dog).

[The creature is the dog and the stick is its tail.]

Your mother's sister, that is to say, your aunt, is suffering

from boil. She cannot sit down.

Answer.-Chala (sieve to filtrate rice beer with).

[This sieve is made of bamboo, and is in form like a hollow

conoid when turned upside downwards, with a circular brim and

There is a creature which carries curved swords from river to

river.

Answer.-Kātkōm (a crab).

[Curved swords mean the crab's forked legs.]

It goes silently from the village; but on reaching the forest

it makes great noise.

Is the hill big or the tree big? The tree is big.

Answer. Hakē (an axe).

[The hill is the axe made of iron which comes out of ore

found in hills. The tree is the wooden handle of the axe.]

A number of white stones are entering straight through.

Answer.- Mandi dundu (cooked rice).

[Cooked rice when swallowed enters straight into the

Answer. Kumbād (A bamboo trap to catch fish with).

An elephant's bowels are lying in a rich man's house.
Answer.-Bar bāyār (A long thick rope made of straw).

[Transtation.]

A creature walks with four legs in the morning, with two

legs at noon and with three legs in the evening.

Answer.-Ho (a man).

[A man in his childhood goes on all fours; when grown up,

he walks with two legs; when he becomes old, he takes the help

of a stick which serves the purpose of a third leg.]

VIII.-The Mango Tree in the MarriageRitual of the Aborigines of Chota Nagpur and Santalia.

By Sarat Chandra Mitra, M.A., B.L.

If we examine the marriage-rituals of the aborigines of Chota Nagpur and Santalia, we come across a very curious feature thereof, namely, the more or less important part played by the mango tree therein. Among the Mündās, the Birhōrs and the Bhumij, all of whom are now in a primitive state of culture and live on the Chota Nagpur plateau, the bridegroom has, before the actual marriage with the human wife takes place, to go through the travesty of a wedding with a mango tree. Then again, among the Mundās and the Birhors of Chota Nagpur and the Santals who live in the Santal Parganas, the twigs or leaves of the mango tree are used largely in the performance of various rites ancillary to the main ceremony of the marriage.

Let us, first of all, deal with the marriage-ritual of the Mündās of Chota Nagpur. When the Mündā marriage procession leaves the bridegroom's village, it stops at the first mango tree (uli) on the way. Round the trunk of this tree, the bridegroom puts a mark of rice-flour dissolved in water and ties up a thread. The bridegroom's mother then sits down thereunder with the bridegroom on her knees. She then asks certain questions of her son, which being answered, the latter puts into his own mouth a mango-twig and molasses. After chewing the mango-twig a little, he gives the chewings to his mother who swallows the whole mass and blesses her boy. Similarly on the occasion of the performance of the bride's 'Uli-Sakhi' ceremony, the bride with a number of her female relatives next proceeds in the

The Mündās and Their Country. By Sarat Chandra Roy, p. 445. Calcutta: The City Book Society, 1912.

palanquin, vacated by the bridegroom, to a neighbouring mango tree. After her arrival there, the bride puts a mark on the tree with moistened rice-flour and ties up a thread around its trunk. This tree is thus made a witness (sākhi) to the marriage. 1

Then again, when the Mündā bridegroom arrives at the courtyard of the bride's house, a number of female relatives come out to meet him, each carrying a brass lotā filled with water and a pestle. Each of these women first sprinkles water on the bridegroom with a mango-twig and then brandishes the pestle, jestingly saying: "If you prove covetous, if you prove a thief, you will be thus beaten with a pestle." 2 This custom of sprinkling the bridegroom with water by means of mango-twigs is alluded to in a Mündā folk-song wherein a Mündā youth, bidding defiance to all social restrictions, says:

"For a bride I shall seek where affection will lead,
My wishes alone the sole guide that I know.
No sprinkling of water with mango-twigs I'll need,
No mark of vermilion over my brow."

This practice of performing the lustration with mango-twigs is also resorted to on other ceremonial occasions, as will appear from the undermentioned incident in the Mündā legend of Lutkum Haram and Lutkum Buria. It is stated therein that the Asürs led the Toro Kōrā towards their furnaces to offer him up as a sacrifice to appease Sing Bōnga. The Tōrō Kōrā had previously given the following instructions about the correct way of performing this sacrifice. Two virgins, who should fast for three days and nights, should work the furnaces with bellows newly made of white goat-skin, and furnished with new bellowhandles and with a new bellow-nozzle. These bellows should be worked continuously and without any stoppage all the days and all the nights long. After the expiry of the prescribed three days, they should sprinkle water on the furnaces with mango-twigs and thereby put out the fire. And the said water used for

The Mündas and Their Country. By Sarat Chandra Roy, p. 447. 2 Op. cit., p. 446. Op. cit., p. 517.