Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 7.djvu/73

Rh means. These gifts are supposed to be repaid with interest. The Tandān sees that a regular account of all the gifts is made out, and handed over to the bridegroom, and receives eight annas for his trouble. The accountant who prepares the accounts, and the person who tests the genuineness of the coins, each receives a bundle of betel leaves, four areca nuts, and two tobacco leaves. Betel leaves, areca nuts, and tobacco, are also given to each giver of gifts. After this, there is the vatil or house ceremony. Two large bundles of betel leaves are prepared, each of which contains a thousand or fifteen hundred leaves, and with them are placed forty or fifty tobacco leaves, and seventy to a hundred areca nuts. The bride's Tandān pays two or four rupees as vatil kanam to the Tandān of the bridegroom, who hands the money to the bridegroom's father. The bridegroom then places one bundle of betel leaves, with half the tobacco and areca nuts, before the bride's father, and the other before her mother, and they are distributed by the Tandān of the girl's tara and his wife among the men and women who are present. Sweetmeats are then distributed, and the marriage ceremony is concluded. A formal visit must be made subsequently by the women of the bride's house to the bridegroom's, and is returned by the bride and bridegroom. The first visit is paid by a party consisting of the bride's mother, her uncle's and brother's wives, the wife of the Tandān, and other relations. They are expected to bring with them plenty of sweetmeats and bread for general distribution. When the return visit is made by the bride and bridegroom, the sister of the latter, and other relations and friends, should accompany them, and they should take with them a lot of betel leaves, areca nuts, tobacco, and sweetmeats. This exchange of visits does not, however, complete those