When the preliminaries have been arranged, the bridegroom proceeds to the house of the bride, in procession with his friends. Two females attend him. The business of these is "to put red lead or oil on the bride elect's head, when the procession has reached her home. There a refection is prepared, after partaking of which, the procession returns, conducting the bride elect to the house of the groom's parents. So far the same rite is common to the Bodo and Dhimál--the rest is peculiar to each. Among the Dhimáls, the Déóshi now proceeds to propitiate the gods by offerings. Dáta and Bídata who preside over wedlock are invoked, and betel-leaf and red lead are presented to them. The bride and groom elect are next placed side by side, and each furnished with five pauns, with which they are required to feed each other, while the parents of the groom cover them with a sheet, upon which the Déóshi, by sprinkling holy water sanctifies and completes the nuptials. Among the Bodo the bride elect is anointed at her own home with oil; the elders _or_ the Déóshi perform the sacred part of the ceremony, which consists in the sacrifice of a cock and a hen, in the respective names of the groom and bride, to the sun: and next, the groom, rising, makes salutation to the bride's parents, and the bride, similarly, attests her future duty of reverence and obedience towards her husband's parents; when the nuptials are complete. A feast follows both with Bodo and Dhimáls, but is less costly among the former than among the latter--as is said, because the higher price paid for his wife by the Bodo incapacitates him for giving so costly an entertainment. The marriage feast of the Dhimáls is alleged to cost thirty or forty rupees sometimes, the festivities being prolonged through two and even three days; whereas four to six--rarely ten rupees suffice for the nuptial banquet of a Bodo.