Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/253

Rh dwellings, and, as they ran in all directions, endeavoured to shift this rag round to the part most likely to be exposed to me." The Bonda women have glass bead and brass ornaments hung round their necks, and covering their bosoms. The legend, which accounts for the scanty clothing of the Bondas, runs to the effect that, when Sīta, the wife of Rāma, was bathing in a river, she was seen by women of this tribe, who laughed at and mocked her. Thereon, she cursed them, and ordained that, in future, all the women should shave their heads, and wear no clothing except a small covering for decency's sake. There is a further tradition that, if the Bonda women were to abandon their primitive costume, the whole tribe would be destroyed by tigers. The shaving of the women's heads is carried out, with a knife lent by the village Kōmaro (blacksmith), by a member of the tribe. Round the head, the women wear a piece of bamboo tied behind with strings.

In one form of marriage, as carried out by the Bondas, a young man, with some of his friends, goes to the sleeping apartment of the maidens, where each of them selects a maid for himself. The young men and maidens then indulge in a singing contest, in which impromptu allusions to physical attributes, and bantering and repartee take place. If a girl decides to accept a young man as her suitor, he takes a burning stick from the night fire, and touches her breast with it. He then withdraws, and sends one of his friends to the girl with a brass bangle, which, after some questioning as to who sent it, she accepts. Some months later, the man's parents go to the girl's home, and ask for her hand on behalf of their son. A feast follows, and the girl, with a couple of girls of about her own age, goes with the man's parents to their home. They send five kunchams