Page:Castes and tribes of southern India, Volume 5.djvu/44

MARAVAN accompanied by his relations, with the following articles in a box made of plaited palmyra leaves: —

At the bride's house, these presents are touched by those assembled there, and the box is handed over to the bride's father. On the wedding day (which is four days afterwards), pongal (cooked rice) is offered to the house god early in the morning. Later in the day, the bridegroom is taken in a palanquin to the house of the bride. Betel is presented to him by her father or brother. The bride generally remains within the house till the time for tying the tāli has arrived. The maternal uncle then blindfolds her with his hand, lifts her up, and carries her to the bridegroom. Four women stand round the contracting couple, and pass round a dish containing a broken cocoanut and a cake three times. The bride and bridegroom then spit into the dish, and the females set up their shrill keening. The maternal uncles join their hands together, and, on receiving the assent of those present, the bridegroom's sister ties the tāli on the bride's neck. The tāli consists of a ring attached to a black silk thread. After marriage, the "silk tāli" is, for every day purposes, replaced by golden beads strung on a string, and the tāli used at the wedding is often borrowed for the occasion. The tāli having been tied, the pair are blessed, and, in some places, their knees, shoulders, heads, and backs are touched with a betel leaf dipped in milk, and blessed with the words " May the pair be prosperous, giving rise to leaves like a banyan tree, roots like the thurvi (Cynodon Dactylon) grass, and like the bamboo." Of