A price is always paid by the bridegroom, in money, jewels, clothes, buffaloes, or rice, according to his wealth. This is generally regarded as a provision for the wife; but among some tribes, the money or goods is given outright to the girl’s parents. On the wedding day, the bridegroom, dressed in his richest attire, and mounted on his best steed, proceeds to the bride’s dwelling, accompanied by his friends with music. When they approach, she comes out to meet them, and receives them with a low obeisance. In some districts they have a frolicsome custom of throwing bundles of betel leaves at each other, as soon as the bride appears at the door. If she receives a blow on the forehead it is considered as a sign that she will have to obey her husband; but if the reverse happens, it is supposed that she will govern him. The bridegroom conducts his bride to a seat elevated above the rest of the company, and in token of their intention to live together, they eat siri (or betel leaves) from the same siri-box. In some places they eat rice from the same vessel. The nuptials are celebrated at the mosque, according to the Mohammedan ritual, and the young couple move through the village in gay procession; the bride in an open litter, decked with all the jewels she could buy or borrow, and the bridegroom and his friends on horseback, with as much splendor of appearance as their means will allow. They are always accompanied by music, and sometimes a buffoon goes before them making ludicrous gestures. They return to a feast at the bride’s parents’; and on the fifth day after the marriage, a new procession is formed to escort them to the house of the bridegroom’s father, where an entertainment is prepared, and where they again eat siri from the same siri-box. In some districts, the spinning wheel, loom, and various cooking utensils, are carried in the bridal procession. Among some tribes in the interior, it is customary for the bride to wash the bridegroom’s feet, in token of subjection; in other places, he treads upon a raw egg, which she wipes from his foot. In some parts of the island, when a man marries a second or third wife, he approaches the bride with a burning brand, on which she pours water from a vase. An English traveller speaks of a widow, who, growing weary of this ceremony before the brand was extinguished, threw the remainder of the water full in her lover’s face. As first marriages are generally arranged by parents, the second wife is more apt to be the object of real affection.