oisoned with opium or by placing the
juice of the _akra_ or swallow-wort plant on the mother's nipple.

5. Marriage customs

Properly the proposal for a Rajput marriage should emanate from the
bride's side, and the customary method of making it was to send a
cocoanut to the bridegroom. 'The cocoanut came,' was the phrase used
to intimate that a proposal of marriage had been made. [470] It is
possible that the bride's initiative was a relic of the Swayamwara or
maiden's choice, when a king's daughter placed a garland on the neck
of the youth she preferred among the competitors in a tournament,
and among some Rajputs the Jayamala or garland of victory is still
hung round the bridegroom's neck in memory of this custom; but it may
also have been due to the fact that the bride had to pay the dowry. One
tenth of this was paid as earnest when the match had been arranged, and
the boy's party could not then recede from it. At the entrance of the
marriage-shed was hung the _toran_, a triangle of three wooden bars,
having the apex crowned with the effigy of a peacock. The bridegroom
on horseback, lance in hand, proceeded to break the _toran_, which was
defended by the damsels of the bride. They assailed him with missiles
of various kinds, and especially with red powder made from the flowers
of the _palas_ [471] tree, at the same time singing songs full of
immoral allusions. At length the _toran_ was broken amid the shouts
of the retainers, and the fair defenders retired. If the bridegroom
could not attend in person his sword was sent to represent him,
and was carried round the marriage-post, with the bride, this being
considered a proper and valid marriage. At the rite of _hatleva_ or
joining the hands of the couple it was customary that any request made
by the bridegroom to the bride's father should meet with compliance,
and this usage has led to many fatal results in history. Another
now obsolete custom was that the bride's father should present an
elephant to his son-in-law as part of the dowry, but when a man could
not afford a real elephant a small golden image of the animal might be
substituted. In noble families the bride was often accompanied to her
husband's house by a number of maidens belonging to the servant and
menial castes. These were called Devadhari or lamp-bearers, and became
inmates of the harem, their offspring being _golas_ or slaves. In
time of famine many of the poor had also perforce to sell themselv