Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/456

SONDI Towards midnight, a new pot is brought, and holes are bored in it. A lighted lamp and food are placed in it, and it is taken towards the burning-ground and set down on the ground. The dead man's name is then called out three times. He is informed that food is ready, and asked to come.

Men, but not women, eat animal food. The women will not partake of the remnants of their husbands' meal on days on which they eat meat, because, according to the legend, their female ancestor was a Brāhman woman.

Among the Sondis of Ganjam, if a girl does not secure a husband before she reaches maturity, she goes through a form of marriage with an old man of the caste, or with her elder sister's husband, and may not marry until the man with whom she has performed this ceremony dies. On the wedding day, the bridegroom is shaved, and his old waist-thread is replaced by a new one. The ceremonies commence with the worship of Ganēsa, and agree in the main with those of many other Oriya castes. The remarriage of widows is permitted. If a widow was the wife of the first-born or eldest son in a family, she may not, after his death, marry one of his younger brothers. She may, however, do so if she was married in the first instance to a second son. It is noted by Mr. C. F. MacCartie, in the Madras Census Report, 1881, that "a good deal of land has been sold by Khond proprietors to other castes. It was in this way that much territory was found some years ago to be passing into the hands of the Sundis or professional liquor distillers. As soon as these facts were brought to the notice of Government, no time was lost in the adoption of repressive measures, which have been completely successful, as the recent census shows a great