A mock feeding ceremony is then carried out. Three plantain leaves are spread in front of the girl in the pandal, and rice, plantains, and pappadams are spread thereon. The uncle's wife offers some of each to the girl three times, but does not allow her to touch it with her lips. The girl is then taken to a temple, to invoke the God's blessing. The description which has just been given is that of the ceremony which is performed, if the girl has not been affianced. If a husband has been arranged for her, it is he who ties the tali, and his sister takes the place of the uncle's wife. Otherwise the ceremony is the same, with this difference, however, that, when the husband ties the tali, there can be no divorce, and the girl cannot remarry in the event of his death. In North, as in South Malabar, the tali-tying ceremony is always performed before puberty, and occupies four days. This is the orthodox procedure. The girl wears a cloth provided by the washerwoman. She is taken from the middle room of the house to the yard, and there seated on a plank of pala wood. Placed in front of her are a small measure of rice and paddy, a washed white cloth, and a small bell-metal vessel (kindi) on a bell-metal plate. The barber pours cocoanut water on her head, on which a silver and copper coin have been placed. One of her relations then pours water from a vessel containing some raw rice over her head, using two halves of a cocoanut as a spout. The girl is then taken back to the middle room, where she remains for three days. There is a feast in the evening. On the fourth day, a pandal is erected in the front yard, and decorated. The girl is taken to bathe at a neighbouring pool, preceded by women carrying a lamp, a kindi of water, and other things which have been already described. During her absence, the barber performs puja to Ganapathi in the pandal. After bathing, she cuts a cocoanut in half, and returns in procession, with a silk canopy over her head, amid music and singing, and enters the middle room of the house. The barber woman ties a gold ornament (netti pattam) on her forehead, which she marks with sandal paste, and blackens her eyes with eye-salve. The uncle's wife, preceded by women bearing a lamp and other articles, carries the mana, covered with cloth, from the middle room to the pandal. She walks three times round the pandal, and places the mana on a grass mat, over which has been spread some paddy and some rice where the girl will put her foot. The women who have carried the lamp, etc., return to the room, and escort the girl to the pandal. She walks thrice round it, and takes her seat on the mana. The barber hands her a little rice, which she throws on the lighted lamp, and articles which have been used in the puja to Ganapathi, and on the post supporting the south-west corner of the pandal. This post should be of pala wood, or have a twig of that tree tied to it. More rice is handed to the girl, and she throws it to