Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/89

Rh and take leave of the chief host as they depart. The bride is soon taken to the bridegroom's hut, and her parents visit her the next day, and get a consideration in return. On the fourth day, the bridegroom and bride bathe and worship the local deity, and, on the seventh day, they return to the bride's hut, where the tāli (marriage badge) is formally removed from the neck of the girl, who is bedecked with brass beads round her neck, rings on her ears, and armlets. The next morning, the mother-in-law presents her son-in-law and his friend with a few necessaries of life, and sends them home with her daughter.

" During the seventh month of pregnancy, the ceremony of puli kuti, or tamarind juice drinking, is performed as among other castes. This is also an occasion for casting out devils, if any, from the body. The pregnant woman is brought back to the hut of her own family. The devil-driver erects a tent-like structure, and covers it with plantain bark and leaves of the cocoanut palm. The flower of an areca palm is fixed at the apex. A cocoanut palm flower is cut out and covered with a piece of cloth, the cut portion being exposed. The woman is seated in front of the tent-like structure with the flower, which symbolises the yet unborn child in the womb, in her lap. The water of a tender cocoanut in spoons made of the leaf of the jack tree (Artocarpus integrifolia) is poured over the cut end by the Vallon, guardian, and brothers and sisters present. The devil-driver then breaks open the flower, and, by looking at the fruits, predicts the sex of the child. If there are fruits at the end nearest the stem, the child will live and, if the number of fruits is even, there will be twins. There will be deaths if any fruit is not well formed. The devil-driver repeats an incantation, whereby he invokes