Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/54

CHENCHU with cowdung. In the centre a bow and arrow tied together are fixed in the ground, and the bride and bridegroom are made to move round it, when the men assembled bless them by throwing some rice over them, and the marriage is complete. According to the third mode, a Brāhmin is consulted by the elders of the family. An auspicious day is fixed, and a raised pial (platform) is formed, on which the bride and bridegroom being seated, a tāli (marriage badge) is tied, and rice poured over their heads. The services of the Brāhmin are engaged for three or four days, and are rewarded with a piece of new cloth and some money. This ceremony resembles that of the ryot (cultivating) class among the Hindus. It is evidently a recent Brahminical innovation. On marriage occasions generally tom-toms, if available, are beaten, and a dance takes place." In the second form of marriage, as described to me, the bride and bridegroom sit opposite each other with four arrows stuck in the ground between them. In Mackenzie's record it is stated that the Chenchus make the bridal pair sit with a single arrow between them, and, when there is no shadow, some elderly men and women throw rice over their heads. The importance of the arrow with the Chenchus, as with the Yānādis, is that the moment when it casts no shadow is the auspicious time for the completion of the marriage rite. The remarriage of widows is permitted, and the second husband is said to be in most cases a brother of the deceased one. As an example of the Chenchu songs, the following marriage song, sung by two men and a woman, and recorded by my phonograph, may be cited: —


 * The tāli was of āvaram * leaves,


 * Oh! the lord of the Chenchus.