-sister being of a different sept. This relaxation
may have been permitted on account of the small numbers of the caste
and the consequent difficulty of arranging marriages.

3. Marriage customs.

The bridegroom goes to the bride's house for the wedding, which
is conducted according to the Hindu ritual of walking round the
sacred post. The cost of a marriage in a fairly well-to-do family,
including the betrothal, may be about Rs. 140, of which a quarter
falls on the bride's people. Divorce and the remarriage of widows
are permitted. A pregnant woman stops working after six months and
goes into retirement. After a birth the woman is impure for five or
six days. She does not appear in public for a month, and takes no
part in outdoor occupations or field-work until the child is weaned,
that is six months after its birth.

4. Funeral rites.

The dead are usually buried, and all members of the dead man's sept
are considered to be impure. After the funeral they bathe and come
home and have their food cooked for them by other Dhobas, partaking of
it in the dead man's house. On the ninth, eleventh or thirteenth day,
when the impurity ends, the male members of the sept are shaved on the
bank of a river and the hair is left lying there. When they start home
they spread some thorns and two stones across the path. Then, as the
first man steps over the thorns, he takes up one of the stones in his
hand and passes it behind him to the second, and each man successively
passes it back as he steps over the thorns, the last man throwing the
stone behind the thorns. Thus the dead man's spirit in the shape of
the stone is separated from the living and prevented from accompanying
them home. Then a feast is held, all the men of the dead man's sept
sitting opposite to the _panchayat_ at a distance of three feet. Next
day water in which gold has been dipped is thrown over the dead man's
house and each member of the sept drinks a little and is pure.

5. Caste _panchayat_ and social penalties.

The head of the caste is always a member of the Sonwani sept and is
known as Raja. It is his business to administer water in which gold has
been dipped (_sona-pani_) to offenders as a means of purification, and
from this the name of the sept is derived. The Raja has no deputy, and
officiates in all ceremonies of the caste; he receives no contribution
from the caste, but a double share of food and sweetmeats when they
are distribute