Page:Castes and tribes of southern India, Volume 5.djvu/478

ODDE pay a fine. When in camp at Dimbhum, in the Coimbatore district, I caught hold of a ladle, to show my friend Dr. Rivers what were the fragrant contents of a pot, in which an Oddē woman was cooking the evening meal. On returning from a walk, we heard a great noise pro- ceeding from the Oddē men who had meanwhile returned from work, and found the woman seated apart on a rock, and sobbing. She had been excommunicated, not because I touched the ladle, but because she had afterwards touched the pot. After much arbitration, I paid up the necessary fine, and she was received back into her caste. When a girl reaches puberty, she is confined in a special hut, in which a piece of iron, margosa leaves (Melia Azadirachta), sticks of Strychnos Nux-vomica, and the arka plant (Calotropis gigantea) are placed, to ward off evil spirits. For fear of these spirits she is not allowed to eat meat, though eggs are permitted. On the seventh day, a fowl is killed, waved in front of the girl, and thrown away. At the end of the period of pollution, the hut is burnt down. Sometimes, when the girl bathes on the first day, a sieve is held over her head, and water poured through it. In some places, on the eleventh day, chicken broth, mixed with arrack (liquor), is administered, in order to make the girl's back and waist strong. The hen, from which the broth is made, must be a black one, and she must have laid eggs for the first time. The flesh is placed in a mortar, pounded to a pulp, and boiled, with the addition of condiments, and finally the arrack.

Both infant and adult marriages are practiced. The marriage ceremony, in its simplest form, is, according to Mr. F. S. Mullaly,* not a tedious one, the bride and