Page:Castes and tribes of southern India, Volume 5.djvu/496

OMANAITO The caste headman is called Bhatha Nāyak, whose office is hereditary. He arranges council meetings for settling social questions, and takes a leading part in excommunicating members of the caste. Like the Gōnds, the Omanaitos cannot tolerate a man suffering from sores, and he is formally excommunicated. To be received back into the caste, he has to give a caste feast, of which the Bhatha Nāyak is the first to partake.

Girls are married before or after puberty. A man claims his paternal aunt's daughter in marriage. As soon as a young man's parents think it is time that he should get married, they set out, with some sweets and jaggery (crude sugar), for the house of the paternal aunt, where the hand of her daughter is asked for. A second visit of a similar nature is made later on, when the marriage is decided on. An auspicious day is fixed by the Dēsāri. A messenger is sent to the house of the bride-elect with some rice, three rupees, a sheep, and a new cloth, which are presented to her parents, who invite the bridegroom and his party to come on the appointed day. On that day, the bridegroom is conducted in procession, sometimes on horseback, to the bride's village. There, in front of her hut, a pandal (booth) has been constructed of eight posts of the sāl tree (Shorea robusta), and a central post of the ippa (Bassia) tree, to which seven pieces of turmeric and seven mango leaves are tied. At the auspicious moment, the bridegroom is conducted in procession to the booth, and the messenger says aloud to the paternal aunt "The bridegroom has come. Bring the bride quickly." She stands by the side of the bridegroom, and the Dēsāri links together their little fingers, while the women throw rice coloured with turmeric over them. Water, which has been brought from the village stream at early morn, and coloured with turmeric, is