Page:Castes and tribes of southern India, Volume 5.djvu/493

Rh bridegroom carries a dagger (katar) with a lime stuck on its tip, and partly covered with a cloth, when he proceeds to the bride's house with a bamboo, new clothes, the tāli (marriage badge), jewels, wrist-thread (kankanam), fruits, cocoanuts, rice, and a new mat, camphor, etc. He must have the dagger with him till the wrist-threads are untied. The barber cuts the nails of the bridegroom. The Pattakāran, or a Brāhman priest, takes round the tāli to be blessed by those assembled, and gives it to the bridegroom, who ties it on the bride's neck. The ends of the cloths of the contracting couple, with betel leaves and areca nuts in them, are tied together, and they link together the little finger of their right hands. They then look at the sky, to see the polestar, Arundati, who was the wife of the ascetic Vasishta, and the emblem of chastity. The marriage booth has four posts, and the milk-post is made of the milk hedge (Euphorbia Tirucalli), to which are tied mango leaves and a wrist-thread. At some Okkiliyan marriages, the caste priest, called Kanigāra (soothsayer), officiates at the tāli-tying ceremony. Very great importance is attached to the linking of the fingers of the bridal couple by the Kanigāra or maternal uncle. The dowry is not given at the time of marriage, but only after the birth of a child. For her first confinement, the woman is taken to her parents' home, and, after delivery, is sent back to her husband with the dowry. This is not given before the birth of a child, as, in the event of failure of issue or death of his wife, the husband might claim the property, which might pass to a new family.

Among some Okkiliyans the custom is maintained by which the father of a young boy married to a grown-up girl cohabits with his daughter-in-law until her husband has reached maturity.