Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India.djvu/381

 The following notes refer to the Bodo section, in which various exogamous septs, or bamsa, exist, of which the following are examples: — Girls are married either before or after puberty. A man can claim his paternal aunt's daughter in marriage. When a marriage is under contemplation, the prospective bridegroom's parents take maddho (liquor) and chada (beaten rice) to the girl's house, where they are accepted or refused, according as her parents agree to, or disapprove of the match. After a stated period, further presents of liquor, rice, black gram, dhāl, salt, chillies, and jaggery (crude sugar) are brought, and betel leaves and areca nuts given in exchange. Two days later the girl's parents pay a return visit to those of the young man. After another interval, the marriage takes place. Nine days before its celebration, paddy (unhusked rice) and Rs. 2 are taken to the bride's house as jholla tonka, and a feast is held. At the bridegroom's house, a pandal, made of nine sorghi or sāl (Shorea robusta) posts, is erected, with a pot of turmeric water tied to the central post. The bride is conducted thither. At the marriage rites the Dēsāri officiates. The ends of the cloths of the contracting couple are tied together, and their little fingers are linked together, while they go, with pieces of turmeric and rice in their hands, seven times round the pandal. The sacred fire, or hōmam, is raised, and into it seven or nine different kinds of wood, ghī (clarified butter), milk, rice and jaggery are thrown. Turmeric-rice dots are put on the foreheads of the bride and bridegroom by the Dēsāri, parents, and relations. They