Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India.djvu/410

BRAHMAN designed in rice grains and salt respectively. After going round the pots, the couple separate, and the bridegroom stands by the salt elephant, and the bride by the other. They then talk about the money value of the two animals, and an altercation takes place, during which they again go round the pots, and stand, the bridegroom near the rice elephant, and the bride near the salt one. The bargaining as to the price of the animals is renewed, and the couple go round the pots once more. This ceremony is followed by a burlesque of domestic life. The bride is presented with two wooden dolls from Tirupati, and told to make a cradle out of the bridegroom's turmeric -coloured cloth, which he wore on the tāli-tying day. The couple converse on domestic matters, and the bridegroom asks the bride to attend to her household affairs, so that he may go to his duties. She pleads her inability to do so because of the children, and asks him to take charge of them. She then shows the babies (dolls) to all present, and a good deal of fun is made out of the incident. The bride, with her mother standing by her side near two empty chairs, is then introduced to her new relations by marriage, who sit in pairs on the chairs, and make presents of pān-supāri and turmeric] On the fifth day of the marriage ceremonies, before dawn, the bridal couple are seated on the dais, and the Gandharva stick is removed, with the words: — " Oh! Visvāwasu Gandharva, I pray to you to make this girl my wife. Unite her with me. Leave her, and seek another." The bridegroom then performs hōmams. A coin is placed on the bride's head, and a little ghī put thereon. Gazing at the bridegroom, she says: — "With a loving heart I regard thee who knowest my heart. Thou art radiant with tapas (penance). Fill me with a child, and this house of ours