sprinkling over the fire should be brought in new earthen pitchers placed over head-cushions made of cotton-thread. 1

[I have not yet been able to ascertain whether the custom of performing the Uli-Sakhi is in vogue among the Oraons of Chota Nagpur. Perhaps, future researches into the marriage-customs of this interesting people will throw light on this point.]

The ceremony of the Uli-Sakhi is also performed among the Birhōrs who are one of the most savage of the junglepeoples of Chota Nagpur. This quaint rite is performed among them almost in the same way as amongst the Mundās of the same province, as will appear from the following account thereof. On his way to the bride's village, the Birhōr bridegroom, who is carried in the arms of his elder sister's husband and is accompanied by his mother and other womenfolk of his tanda or settlement, is, first of all, taken to a mango tree. The women take with them a lotā or jug of water, two leaf-platters and several leaf-cups, each of which contains molasses, rice-flour, vermilion and some unbleached thread. After reaching the foot of the tree, the bridegroom makes, with the little finger of his right hand, a vermilion-mark on the trunk thereof. While his little finger is still in contact with the tree, a woman of the party winds a strand of the unbleached thread five times round the trunk of the mango tree just below the vermilion-mark. Then some one of the party strikes the branches of the tree with a stick or club and fetches down some leaves or twigs thereof. Then a few of these twigs or stalks of the mango-leaves are handed over to the bridegroom who chews them a little and makes over the chewed mass to his mother. She, in her turn, mixes the chewed mass of twigs or leaf-stalks with molasses and swallows the same. This ceremony is repeated five times [note that five is a sacred number] and known as the bridegroom's Uli-Sakhi ceremony.2

When the bridegroom arrives in procession before the hut of the bride's father, three or five [note that three and five are 1The Mündis and Their Country, By Sarat Chandra Roy, p. 33 (Appendix II). ? J.B.O.R.S., Vol. IV, p. 78.

sacred numbers] females come out to welcome him. This is known as the Archhā-Parchhā, or the ceremony of welcoming the bridegroom. These women carry a new basket containing pounded turmeric and three or five torches made out of rags steeped in oil and twisted round the stalks or twigs of mangoleaves. Taking her stand before the bridegroom, each one of these women, one after the other, holds one of the lighted torches in her left hand, and, with her right hand, smears a little of the turmeric-paste over his temples. Then he, in his turn, besmears the temples of these women with the turmeric-paste with his right hand. Then the torches are cast off by the women.1 After the bridegroom has been introduced to the female relatives of his bride by the Archhä-Parchha ceremony, two girls come out with two pitchers of water brought from some neighbouring stream, tank or spring with the performance of some rites, and, dipping a few small mango-twigs in these pitchers, sprinkle the said water all over the body of the bridegroom. In his own turn, the bridegroom dips one or two mango-twigs in a bowl of water brought to him by one of his own party. 2

Then comes the bride's Uli-Sakhi ceremony. On this occasion, the bride's mother, accompanied by the bride and several other women, goes to a mango tree, the bride being carried in the arms of one of these latter women. It is a sine qua non of this ceremony that this tree should not be in the direction of the bridegroom's tāndā or encampment. If a mango tree fulfilling this condition be not found, a mango-branch is planted in the ground in the prescribed direction. Under this mango tree or branch, the bride, her mother and other female companions perform the same ceremonies as have been performed by the bridegroom, his mother and other companions at his own Uli-Sakhi. 3

The twig or leaf of the mango tree also plays an important part in other ceremonies connected with the wedding-ritual of the Birhōrs.

1 J.B.O.R.S., Vol. IV., pp. 79, 80.

2 Ibid., p. 80.

Ibid., p. 81.

Take, for instance, the rites performed on the occasion of the bridegroom's Adhibas ceremony which generally takes place on the morning of the day which is fixed for the marriage and on which day the bridegroom's party is to go to the bride's village. On the occasion of this ceremony, the bridegroom's sister's husband excavates a miniature tank and plants a young plantain tree on its eastern bank. On its western margin, a slab of stone is placed over three bundles of thatching-grass. On this stone slab, the bridegroom and his mother take their seats with their faces turned towards the east. Thereafter two girls dip twigs of the mango tree, which have been brought by the husband of the bridegroom's elder sister, in two pitchers containing ceremonial water which has been previously brought by some other women from a neighbouring spring or stream. With these twigs, the two girls sprinkle water from the two pitchers over the bridegroom who thereafter bathes in the water of one of these two pitchers, and his mother does so in that contained in the other. Thereafter his mother, placing a new winnowing fan (with certain ceremonial articles in it) on her head, sits down at the door of her hut just inside the doorstep. While the bridegroom, who has, in the meantime, taken his meal, sits down confronting his mother on the outer side of the doorstep. The husband of the bridegroom's elder sister then twists into the shape of cigarettes each of the mango-leaves with which water has been previously sprinkled on the bridegroom, and weaves them into six garlands, each garland being made of three twisted mango-leaves. Two of these six garlands are worn by the bridegroom, two by his father, and the remaining two by his mother, one being worn on an arm and the other on a leg by each of them.1

Similar garlands of mango-leaves appear also to be worn by the bride. For it would appear that, on the occasion of the performance of the ceremony known as the " Exchange of Blood", which takes place at the bride's place and in the course of which ceremony the bridegroom touches the bride with his own "sināi" or blood-stained rag and the bride touches him with

1 J.B.O.R.S., Vol. IV., pp. 77, 78.

hers, the bridegroom and bride exchange their garlands of mangoleaves.1

On the return of the bridegroom with the bride to his own house, one of his womenfolk shuts his eyes with her hands. Then he has, in this blindfold state, to take off from his arm the aforementioned garland of three twisted mango-leaves and buries it with his hands in the water of the aforesaid miniature tank. Then another woman blindfolds the bride with her hands; and, thus blindfolded, the latter has to search for the buried garland of mango-leaves with her hands and fish out the same from the tank.2

A quaint ceremony is, however, performed among the Kāwān clan of the Birhōrs, wherein the leaves of the mango tree figure largely. Before the bridegroom and the bride enter the hut, a fowl is sacrificed, and its blood is sprinkled on them. Then the bridegroom's mother draws with rice-flour steeped in water a chain of round figures from the courtyard right up to the door of this hut, and places a mango-leaf on each of these round figures. First of all, the bridegroom, in going up to the door of this hut, has to place his footsteps on each of these mango-leaves. Thereafter he is followed by the bride in a similar way.3

Then, on the occasion of the Chouṭha-Chouṭhi Ceremony which is performed on the morning of the day next to that on which the bridegroom with the bride returns to his own place, both of them change their turmeric-dyed cloths. Thereafter the bride places on her head a basket containing about twenty pellets of clay and takes up in her hand a loța filled with water and covered up with a leaf-cup holding some molasses. With these she wends her way to her father's tanḍā or encampment. Taking up in his hands a bow and an arrow and a leafy twig of mango, the bridegrcom goes after his bride, always remaining at a little distance from her.

As soon as the bride arrives at the boundary of her husband's encampment, she puts down upon the ground her basket and loṭa

1 J.B.O.R.S., Vol. IV., pp. 81, 82.

2 Ibid., P. 87.

3 Ibid., p. 88.

of water and commences to run in the direction of her father's settlement. Thereupon the bridegroom places his bow and arrow near the basket put down by his wife, and pursues her till he reaches her. Catching hold of her hand, he beals her on her buttocks with the mango-twig which he holds in his hands and takes her back to the place where she had left her basket and where the womenfolk of his own encampment had, in the meantime, gathered.1 [Thereafter other ceremonies are performed with which we are not concerned.]

Lastly, the mango-twig figures conspicuously in that quaint and curious ritual, namely, the ceremony which marks the beginning of the taboo between a Birhōr and the elder sisters and cousins of the wife. After the elder sisters and cousins of the bride have performed the Chuman or Symbolical "Kissing" Ceremony of which the details need not be given here, each of them, by turn, asks the bridegroom: "What is your name?" After communicating to thern his own name, he enquires of them their respective names. In reply to his question, each of them tells him her own name, and thereafter, dipping a leafy mango-twig in a bowl of water, sprinkles therewith a little of this water on the bridegroom. He, in his own turn, dips a mingo-twig in water contained in a brass plate which is placed before him, and sprinkles therewith a little water over her. As each of these elder sisters and cousins of the bride finishes this ceremonial sprinkling of water, she pulls the bridegroom by the ears, strikes his back thrice with her closed fists, and tells him: "From to-day regard me as your Jeṭh-sas; listen well with your ears; do not utter my name again with your lips." After making this remark, she places her present on the plate before the bridegroom and goes away. Henceforth he and his Jeṭh-sās must not utter each other's name, nor talk to each other, nor sit together on the same mat, nor come near each other. 2

We shall now deal with the Bhumij or the Bhumij-Kōls who have ethnic and linguistic affinities with the Mūndās, the

1 J.B.O.R.S., Vol. IV., pp. 88, 89.

2 Ibid., pp. 85, 86.