Page:Castes and tribes of southern India, Volume 5.djvu/48

MARAVAN Mr. Fawcett writes, "may marry her deceased husband's elder brother, but not a younger brother. If she does not like him, she may marry some one else." When a girl reaches puberty, news of the event is conveyed by a washerman. On the sixteenth day she comes out of seclusion, bathes, and returns home. At the threshold, her future husband's sister is standing, and averts the evil eye by waving betel leaves, plantains, cocoanuts, cooked flour paste (puttu), a vessel filled with water, and an iron measure containing rice with a style (ambu) stuck in it. The style is removed by the girl's prospective sister-in-law, who beats her with it as she enters the house. A feast is held at the expense of the girl's maternal uncle, who brings a goat, and ties it to a pole at her house. Both burial and cremation are practiced by the Maravans. The Sembunāttu Maravans of Rāmnād regard the Agamudaiyans as their servants, and the water, with which the corpse is washed, is brought by them. Further, it is an Agamudaiyan, and not the son of the deceased, who carries the fire-pot to the burial-ground. The corpse is carried thither on a bier or palanquin. The grave is dug by an Āndi, never by a Pallan or Paraiyan. Salt, powdered brick, and sacred ashes are placed on the floor thereof, and the corpse is placed in it in a sitting posture. The Kondaiyamkottai Maravans of Rāmnād, who are stone and brick masons, burn their dead, and, on their way to the burning-ground, the bearers of the corpse walk over cloths spread on the ground. On the second or third day, lingams are made out of the ashes, or of mud from the grave if the corpse has been buried. To these, as well as to the soul of the deceased, and to the crows, offerings are made. On the sixteenth day,