Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/244

228 in, and the sixth was her sister! All save the first were of lower caste than himself, and besides paying him in money for his condescension in marrying them, besides working for him like slaves, they felt honoured and happy! He did literally nothing, he continued with another horrid leer, except going to customers on pay-day. Not a bad idea!

Marriages, both among Parsis and Hindus, especially the latter, are often very strange perpetrations. I read some time ago a graphic account of a marriage recently perpetrated at Poona. The "happy bridegroom" had just entered on his fifth year when he took to him the "blooming bride" of two-and-a-half. The parties concerned seemed to have taken the matter very lightly; so much so, that to the outsider the ceremony seemed to have been performed between the two parents who stood sponsors, and to whom the usual query, "Dost thou take him" or "her as thy lawful," &c., was addressed by the priest. The bridal preparations were complete to a degree—the groom was turned out in all the bravery of the toga virilis and a huge