ad with red powder and
gives her a present of a rupee and some sweetmeats. All the party
then eat together. This is followed by a visit of the girl's father
to the boy's house where a similar ceremony is enacted and the boy
is presented with a cocoanut, a _pagri_ and cloth, and a silver
or gold ring. Again the boy's relatives go to the girl's house
and give her more valuable presents of jewellery and clothing. A
Brahman is afterwards consulted to fix the date of the marriage,
but the poorer Kunbis dispense with his services as he charges two
or three rupees. Prior to the ceremony the bodies of the bride and
bridegroom are well massaged with vegetable oil and turmeric in their
respective houses, partly with a view to enhance their beauty and also
perhaps to protect them during the trying period of the ceremony when
maleficent spirits are particularly on the alert. The marriage-shed is
made of eleven poles festooned with leaves, and inside it are placed
two posts of the _saleh_ (_Boswellia serrata_) or _umar_ (_Ficus
glomerata_) tree, one longer than the other, to represent the bride
and bridegroom. Two jars filled with water are set near the posts,
and a small earthen platform called _baola_ is made. The bridegroom
wears a yellow or white dress, and has a triangular frame of bamboo
covered with tinsel over his forehead, which is known as _basing_
and is a substitute for the _maur_ or marriage-crown of the Hindustani
castes. Over his shoulder he carries a pickaxe as the representative
implement of husbandry with one or two wheaten cakes tied to it. This
is placed on the top of the marriage-shed and at the end of the five
days' ceremonies the members of the families eat the dried cakes
with milk, no outsider being allowed to participate. The _barat_
or wedding procession sets out for the bride's village, the women
of the bridegroom's family accompanying it except among the Tirole
Kunbis, who forbid the practice in order to demonstrate their higher
social position. It is received on the border of the girl's village
by her father and his friends and relatives, and conducted to the
_janwasa_ or temporary lodging prepared for it, with the exception
of the bridegroom, who is left alone before the shrine of Maroti or
Hanuman. The bridegroom's father goes to the marriage-shed where he
washes the bride's feet and gives her another present of clothes,
and her relatives then proceed to Maroti's temple where they worship
and make off