The binding ceremony of the marriage is the walking seven times round
the marriage-post in the direction of the sun. The post probably
represents the sun and the walk of the bridal couple round it may
be an imitation of the movement of the planets round the sun. The
reverence paid to the marriage-post has already been noticed. During
the procession the bride leads and the bridegroom puts his left hand
on her left shoulder. The household pounding-slab is near the post
and on it are placed seven little heaps of rice, turmeric, areca-nut,
and a small winnowing-fan. Each time the bride passes the slab the
bridegroom catches her right foot and with it makes her brush one of
the little heaps off the slab. These seven heaps represent the seven
Rishis or saints who are the seven large stars of the constellation
of the Great Bear.

10. Other ceremonies

After the wedding the bride and bridegroom resume their seats and
the parents of the bride wash their feet in a brass tray, marking
their foreheads with rice and turmeric. They put some silver in
the tray, and other relations and friends do the same. The presents
thus collected go to the bridegroom. The Chandnahu Kurmis then have
a ceremony known as _palkachar_. The bride's father provides a bed
on which a mattress and quilt are laid and the bride and bridegroom
are seated on it, while their brother and sister sprinkle parched
rice round them. This is supposed to typify the consummation of the
marriage, but the ceremony is purely formal as the bridal couple are
children. The bridegroom is given two lamps and he has to mix their
flames, probably to symbolise the mixing of the spirits of his wife and
himself. He requires a present of a rupee or two before he consents to
do so. During the wedding the bride is bathed in the same water as the
bridegroom, the joint use of the sacred element being perhaps another
symbolic mark of their union. At the feasts the bride eats rice and
milk with her husband from one dish, once at her own house and once
after she goes to her husband's house. Subsequently she never eats
with her husband but always after him. She also sits and eats at the
wedding-feasts with her husband's relations. This is perhaps meant
to mark her admission into her husband's clan. After the wedding
the Brahmans on either side recite Sanskrit verses, praising their
respective families and displaying their own learning. The competition
often becomes bitter and would e