t gives the
signal the dividing cloth (Antarpat) between the couple is withdrawn,
and the garments of the bride and bridegroom are knotted, while the
bystanders clap their hands and pelt the couple with coloured grain. As
the priest frequently takes up his position on the roof of the house
for a wedding it is easy for the Mahars to see him. In Mandla some
of the lower class of Brahmans will officiate at the weddings of
Mahars. In Chhindwara the Mahars seat the bride and bridegroom in
the frame of a loom for the ceremony, and they worship the hide of a
cow or bullock filled with water. They drink together ceremoniously,
a pot of liquor being placed on a folded cloth and all the guests
sitting round it in a circle. An elder man then lays a new piece
of cloth on the pot and worships it. He takes a cup of the liquor
himself and hands round a cupful to every person present.

In Mandla at a wedding the barber comes and cuts the bride's nails,
and the cuttings are rolled up in dough and placed in a little
earthen pot beside the marriage-post. The bridegroom's nails and hair
are similarly cut in his own house and placed in another vessel. A
month or two after the wedding the two little pots are taken out and
thrown into the Nerbudda. A wedding costs the bridegroom's party
about Rs. 40 or Rs. 50 and the bride's about Rs. 25. They have no
going-away ceremony, but the occasion of a girl's coming to maturity
is known as Bolawan. She is kept apart for six days and given new
clothes, and the caste-people are invited to a meal. When a woman's
husband dies the barber breaks her bangles, and her anklets are taken
off and given to him as his perquisite. Her brother-in-law or other
relative gives her a new white cloth, and she wears this at first,
and afterwards white or coloured clothes at her pleasure. Her hair
is not cut, and she may wear _patelas_ or flat metal bangles on the
forearm and armlets above the elbow, but not other ornaments. A widow
is under no obligation to marry her first husband's younger brother;
when she marries a stranger he usually pays a sum of about Rs. 30 to
her parents. When the price has been paid the couple exchange a ring
and a bangle respectively in token of the agreement. When the woman is
proceeding to her second husband's house, her old clothes, necklace
and bangles are thrown into a river or stream and she is given new
ones to wear. This is done to lay the first husband's spirit, which
may be supposed t