Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 4.djvu/257

Rh wives from families similarly circumstanced." According to Mr. Stuart, the Sugālis of the North Arcot district "do not allow the marriage of widows, but on payment of Rs. 15 and three buffaloes to her family, who take charge of her children, a widow may be taken by any man as a concubine, and her children are considered legitimate. Even during her husband's life, a woman may desert him for any one else, the latter paying the husband the cost of the original marriage ceremony. The Sugālis burn the married, but bury all others, and have no ceremonies after death for the rest of the soul of the deceased." If the head of a burning corpse falls off the pyre, the Lambādis pluck some grass or leaves, which they put in their mouths "like goats," and run home. A custom called Valli Sukkeri is recorded by the Rev. G. N. Thomssen, according to which "if an elder brother marries and dies without offspring, the younger brother must marry the widow, and raise up children, such children being regarded as those of the deceased elder brother. If, however, the elder brother dies leaving offspring, and the younger brother wishes to marry the widow, he must give fifteen rupees and three oxen to his brother's children. Then he may marry the widow." The custom here referred to is said to be practiced because the Lambādi's ancestor Sugrīva married his elder brother Vali's widow.

I am informed by Mr. F. A. Hamilton that, among the Lambādis of Kollegal in the Coimbatore district, "if a widower remarries, he may go through the ordinary marriage ceremony, or the kuttuvali rite, in which all that is necessary is to declare his selection of a bride to four or five castemen, whom he feeds. A widow may remarry according to the same rite, her new husband