dding ceremony is of the type prevalent in the locality. The
proposal comes from the boy's family, and a price is usually given
for the bride. The Kaonra Ahirs of Mandla and the Jharia and Kosaria
Rawats of Chhattisgarh employ a Brahman only to write the _lagun_ or
paper fixing the date of the wedding, and the ceremony is conducted
by the _sawasins_ or relatives of the parties. In Chhattisgarh the
bridegroom is dressed as a girl to be taken to the wedding. In Betul
the weddings of most Gaolis are held in Magh (January), and that of
the Ranya subcaste in the bright fortnight of Kartik (October). At
the ceremony the bride is made to stand on a small stone roller; the
bridegroom then takes hold of the roller facing the bride and goes
round in a circle seven times, turning the roller with him. Widow
remarriage is permitted, and a widow is often expected to marry
the younger brother of her deceased husband. If a bachelor wishes
to marry a widow he first goes through the ceremony with a dagger
or an earthen vessel. Divorce is freely permitted. In Hoshangabad a
strip is torn off the clothes worn by husband and wife as a sign of
their divorce. This is presumably in contrast to the knotting of the
clothes of the couple together at a wedding.

10. Birth customs.

Among the Rawats of Chhattisgarh, when a child is shortly to be born
the midwife dips her hand in oil and presses it on the wall, and it
is supposed that she can tell by the way in which the oil trickles
down whether the child will be a boy or a girl. If a woman is weak
and ill during her pregnancy it is thought that a boy will be born,
but if she is strong and healthy, a girl. A woman in advanced pregnancy
is given whatever she desires to eat, and on one occasion especially
delicate kinds of food are served to her, this rite being known as
Sidhori. The explanation of the custom is that if the mother does
not get the food she desires during pregnancy the child will long for
it all through life. If delivery is delayed, a line of men and boys
is sometimes made from the door of the house to a well, and a vessel
is then passed from hand to hand from the house, filled with water,
and back again. Thus the water, having acquired the quality of speed
during its rapid transit, will communicate this to the woman and cause
her quick delivery. Or they take some of the clay left unmoulded on
the potter's wheel and give it her to drink in water; the explanation
of this is exac