Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 4.djvu/256

LAMBADI made a bridegroom, and he must give out the name of his bride. He is then slapped on the cheeks by the women, thrown down, and his clothing stripped off. The Brāhman ceremonial concluded, a woman puts the badges of marriage on the bride. On the following day, she is dressed up, and made to stand on a bullock, and keep on crooning a mournful song, which makes her cry eventually. As she repeats the song, she waves her arms, and folds them over her head. The words of the song, the reproduction of which in my phonograph invariably made the women weep, are somewhat as follows: —


 * Oh! father, you brought me up so carefully by spending much money.
 * All this was to no purpose.
 * Oh! mother, the time has come when I have to leave you.
 * Is it to send me away that you nourished me?
 * Oh! how can I live away from you.
 * My brothers and sisters?

Among the Lambādis of Mysore, widow remarriage and polygamy are said* to freely prevail, "and it is customary for divorced women to marry again during the lifetime of the husband under the sire udikē (tying of a new cloth) form of remarriage, which also obtains among the Vakkaligas and others. In such cases, the second husband, under the award of the caste arbitration, is made to pay a certain sum (tera) as amends to the first husband, accompanied by a caste dinner. The woman is then readmitted into society. But certain disabilities are attached to widow remarriage. Widows remarried are forbidden entry into a regular marriage party, whilst their offspring are disabled from legal marriage for three generations, although allowed to take