Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/283

Rh Marriage is, as a rule, adult, and remarriage of widows is permitted, though the tendency at the present day is to abandon the practice. At the wedding of a widow, the bottu (marriage badge) is tied round her neck at night. Prior to the marriage ceremony, the worship of female ancestors must be performed. A new female cloth, betel, and flowers, are placed on a tray, and worshipped by the mothers of the contracting couple. The cloth is given as a present to a sister or other near relation of the bride or bridegroom. The dead are cremated, and the widow breaks one or two of her bangles. Fire must be carried to the burning-ground by the father of the deceased, if he is alive. On the day following cremation, the hot embers are extinguished, and the ashes collected, and shaped into an effigy, near the head of which three conical masses of mud and ashes are set up. To these representatives of Rudra, Yama, and the spirit of the departed, cooked rice and vegetables are offered up on three leaves. One of the leaves is given to the Jangam, who officiates at the rite, another to a washerman, and the third is left, so that the food on it may be eaten by crows. All, who are assembled, wait till these birds collect, and the ashes are finally poured on a tree. On the ninth, tenth, or eleventh day after death, a ceremony called the peddadinam (big day) is performed. Cooked rice, curry, meat, and other things, are placed on a leaf inside the house. Sitting near this leaf, the widow weeps and breaks one or two of the glass bangles, which she wears on the wrist. The food is then taken to a stream or tank (pond), where the agnates, after shaving, bathing, and purification, make an effigy of the dead person on the ground. Close to this cooked rice and vegetables are placed on three leaves, and offered to the