Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 6 of 7Thurston, Edgar
History
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 6 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
then put two more arrows in the father's left hand, holding them in
his hand with both of my hands over his, and asked him to drink. Two
fresh arrows were likewise placed in the left hands of all the girl's
male relatives, while I asked them to drink. To each female relative
of the girl I gave a brass bangle, which I put on their right wrists
while I asked them to drink. The five pots of liquor were drunk by
the girl's male and female relations, and the villagers. When the
liquor was all drunk, the girl's father said 'Come again in a month,
and bring more liquor.' In a month I went again, with all the people
of my village, men, women and children, dancing as we went (to music
of course), taking with us thirty pots of liquor, and a little rice
and a cloth for the girl's mother; also some hill dholl (pulse),
which we put in the father's house. The liquor was set down in the
middle of the village, and the villagers, and those who came with me,
drank the liquor and danced. The girl did not join in this; she was
in the house. When the liquor was finished, my village people went
home, but I remained in the father's house. For three days I stayed,
and helped him to work in his fields. I did not sleep with the girl;
the father and I slept in one part of the house, and the girl and her
mother in another. At the end of the three days I went home. About
ten days afterwards, I, with about ten men of my village, went to
watch for the girl going to the stream for water. When we saw her,
we caught her, and ran away with her. She cried out and the people of
her village came after us, and fought with us. We got her off to my
village, and she remained with me as my wife. After she became my wife,
her mother gave her a cloth and a bangle." The same individual said
that, if a man wants a girl, and cannot afford to give the liquor,
etc., to her people, he takes her off by force. If she likes him,
she remains, but, if not, she runs home. He will carry her off three
times, but not oftener; and, if after the third time she again runs
away, he leaves her. The Saoras themselves say that formerly every
one took his wife by force. In a case which occurred a few years ago,
a bridegroom did not comply with the usual custom of giving a feast
to the bride's people, and the bride's mother objected to the marriage
on that account. The bridegroom's party, however, managed to carry off
the bride. Her mother raised an alarm, whereon a number of people ran
up, and tried to stop the bridegroom's party. They were outnumbered,
and one was knocked down, and died from rupture of the spleen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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