Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 7.djvu/224

TOTTIYAN of the couple with its blood, and the pursuit by the bridegroom, with a bow and arrow, of a man who pretends to flee, but is at length captured and bound. The ram is first sprinkled with water, and, if it shivers, this, as usual, is held to be a good omen. The bride-price is seven kalams of kumbu (Pennisetum typhoideum) and the couple may eat only this grain and horse-gram until the wedding is over. A bottu (marriage badge) is tied round the bride's neck by the bridegroom's sister."

Concerning the marriage ceremonies of the Yerrakollas, I gather that, on the betrothal day, kumbu must be cooked. Food is given to seven people belonging to seven different septs. They are then presented with betel leaves and areca nuts and four annas tied in a cloth, and the approaching marriage is announced. On the wedding day, the bride and bridegroom are seated on planks on the marriage dais, and milk is sprinkled over them by people of their own sex. A few hours later, the bridegroom takes his seat in the pandal, whither the bride is brought in the arms of her maternal uncle. She sits by the side of the bridegroom, and the Mettu Nāyakan links together the little fingers of the contracting couple, and tells them to exchange rings. This is the binding portion of the ceremony, and no bottu is tied round the bride's neck. At a marriage among the Vekkiliyans, two huts are constructed in an open space outside the village, in front of which a pandal is erected, supported by twelve posts, and roofed with leafy twigs of the pongu tree and Mimusops hexandra. On the following day, the bride and bridegroom are conducted to the huts, the bride being sometimes carried in the arms of her maternal uncle. They worship the ancestral heroes, who are represented by new cloths folded, and placed on a tray. The bridegroom's sister ties the bottu