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96 CHAP. III.

Padaiychis and Paraiyans) a spot is marked with sandal on the bride's forehead by her maternal uncle or the boy's father. Among the Valaiyans and Vallambans and some of the Kallans the boy's party carry a cock and some rice to the bride's house and a general feast takes place. The Tóttiyans also have a feast. Among the Valaiyans the betrothal feast concludes the marriage, and no further ceremony is needed.

The marriage ceremony itself is ordinarily performed in the bride's house. The usual season is the hot weather between March and July, when little agricultural work is going on, and every one is at leisure. The marriage should last for three days, but among the poor one day suffices. On the first day the táli, or marriage-badge, is solemnly tied round the bride's neck; on the second the pair are taken in procession and the relations make them small presents (moyi); and on the third there are some closing ceremonies. The moyi gifts are not intended to be kept, but are given back on some convenient occasion. The wedding ceremonies among the Konga Vellálans, Reddis, Tóttiyans, Náttukkóttai Chettis, Vallambans and Malaiyális are peculiar, and are referred to more particularly in the accounts of those castes below. Among the other castes regarding which enquiries were made they are, within certain broad limits, more or less identical, and will now be summarized.

No marriage is performed unless the omens given by the chirping of lizards are favourable. When the marriage is to be performed in the boy's house, his friends and relatives go solemnly the day before and invite the bride and her party to the wedding. The bride's mother used not ordinarily to appear at weddings performed in the boy's house, but this prohibition is now being relaxed.

On the first day of the wedding a branch of some milky tree is planted as a 'favourable pole' (muhúrtakkál). The party then goes to the potter's house and gets either three pots (called sá’ karagam) or an ánai arasáni consisting of clay images of an elephant, a horse and a yáli, and two earthen vessels to represent the gods. These are placed on a low platform in the marriage booth (manavarai), and two pots of rice are offered to them. At the same time what are called páligai pots, nine in number, are filled with earth, grain is sown in them and they are left in the booth until the seed sprouts. The bridegroom is next shaved and is subjected to the 'soap-nut ceremony' (sikkáy sadanga) to ward off