Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 3.djvu/200

KANIKAR be granted. The crowd then set to eating and drinking the sacrificial elements, and dispersed." Both adult and infant marriage are practiced. Those who had married 'infants,' on being questioned, stated that this is the safest course, as grown-up brides sometimes run away to their parents' house, whereas younger girls get accustomed to their husbands' home. On a fixed day, within a month of the marriage ceremony, four Kānikars, accompanied by a boy carrying betel leaves and areca nuts, go to the home of the future bride, and present them to the families of the settlement. On the wedding morning, all assemble at a pandal (booth), and the bridegroom distributes pān-supāri (betel leaf and areca nuts). His sister then brings forward the bride, and the bridegroom presents her with a cloth, which she puts on. Bride, bridegroom, and a young boy, then stand on a mat beneath the pandal, and the bridegroom ties the minnu (marriage badge) round the neck of the bride if she is an infant. If she is an adult, he places the minnu in front of her neck, on which it is tied by his sister. A plantain leaf is then placed in front of the bridal couple, and curry and rice served thereon by their mothers. The two women then take hold of the bride's head, and press it seven times towards her husband's shoulders. This ceremony concluded, the young boy takes a small quantity of the curry and rice, and puts it in the mouth of the bridegroom seven times. The bridegroom's younger brother then gives a morsel to the bride. The ceremonial terminates with a feast.The dowry includes billhooks, brass vessels, choppers,grain, and pulses. The headman, according to Mateer, offers some advice to the husband concerning the management of his wife. The heads of his discourse are arranged under the following heads: — teaching by