Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/513

Rh fourteenth day amongst the Southern Jacobites, and amongst other divisions on the fifty-sixth day. A rice-giving ceremony similar to the Hindu Chōrunnu is still sometimes performed in the fifth or sixth month, when the child is presented by the mother with a gold cross, if a boy, or a small gold coin or talūvam if a girl, to be worn round the neck.

"Among the Jacobites early marriage was the rule until comparatively recently, boys being married at ten or twelve years of age, and girls at six or seven. Now the more usual age for marriage is sixteen in the case of boys, and twelve in the case of girls. Weddings take place on Sundays, and, amongst the Northerners, may be celebrated in either the bride's or the bride groom's parish church. On the two Sundays before the wedding, the banns have to be called in the two churches, and the marriage agreements concluded in the presence of the parish priests (Ottu kalyānam). The dowry, which is an essential feature of Syrian weddings, is usually paid on the Sunday before the wedding. It should consist of an odd number of rupees, and should be tied up in a cloth. On the Thursday before the wedding day, the house is decorated with rice flour, and on the Saturday the marriage pandal (booth), is built. The first ceremonial takes place on Saturday night when bride and bridegroom both bathe, and the latter is shaved. Next morning both bride and bride-groom attend the ordinary mass, the bridegroom being careful to enter the church before the bride. Now-a- days both are often dressed more or less in European fashion, and it is essential that the bride should wear as many jewels as she has got, or can borrow for the occasion. Before leaving his house, the bridegroom is blessed by his guru to whom he gives a present (dakshina) of