Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/86

CHERUMAN and a sum of five fanams is paid as the bride's price. The members assembled are treated to a dinner. A similar entertainment is held at the bridegroom's hut to the bride's parents, uncles, and others who come to see the bridegroom. On the morning of the day fixed for the wedding, the bridegroom and his party go to the bride's hut, where they are welcomed, and seated on mats in a small pandal put up in front of the hut. A muri (piece of cloth), and two small mundus (cloths) are the marriage presents to the bride. A vessel full of paddy (unhusked rice), a lighted lamp, and a cocoanut are placed in a conspicuous place therein. The bride is taken to the booth, and seated by the side of the bridegroom. Before she enters it, she goes seven times round it, with seven virgins before her. With prayers to their gods for blessings on the couple, the tāli (marriage badge) is tied round the bride's neck. The bridegroom's sister completes the knot. By a strange custom, the bride's mother does not approach the bridegroom, lest it should cause a ceremonial pollution. The ceremony is brought to a close with a feast to those assembled. Toddy is an indispensable item of the feast. During the night, they amuse themselves by dancing a kind of wild dance, in which both men and women joyfully take part. After this, the bridegroom goes along to his own hut, along with his wife and his party, where also they indulge in a feast. After a week, two persons from the bride's hut come to invite the married couple. The bride and bridegroom stay at the bride's hut for a few days, and cannot return to his hut unless an entertainment, called Vathal Choru, is given him. "The marriage customs of the Valluva Pulayas in the southern parts of the State, especially in the Cochin and Kanayannūr tāluks, are more formal. The average