her under the shed, where her father washes the feet of the bridegroom. He then marks the ploughshare with red lead, while the Pandit recites texts (mantra), and the father taking some kusa grass in his hand solemnly makes over his daughter to her husband. Then follow the usual five perambulations round the ploughshare, while at each revolution the bride’s brother pours parched rice into a winnowing fan (sûp) held by the bridegroom, who scatters it on the ground. Bride and bridegroom then go into the retiring room (kohabar), where the women play jokes on the bridegroom, and he seizes the garment of his mother-in-law and refuses to release her till she gives him a present. The wedding feast follows, and the bridegroom takes his bride home next day, after his father has first shaken one of the poles of the marriage shed, for which he receives a present (mânro hilâi) from the bride’s father. This done, the friends embrace all round and the procession starts for home. Four days after the wedding festoons (bandanwâr), and the water jug (kalsa), are taken to a neighbouring stream. The festoons are thrown into the water by the married pair, and the jar is filled with water, which is used by the bridegroom in plastering a place in front of the shrine of the local gods (dih), where he offers a fire offering (hom) with treacle and butter. [Death ceremonies.] 8. The dead are cremated in the usual way. After the burning the relatives chew leaves of the bitter nîm tree, and then eat some treacle; next day the widow goes to a stream and washes the red lead out of the parting of her hair. Poorer people merely throw the body into a stream (prabâh), and young children are buried. For persons who die at a distance they do the nârâyani bal. They make an image of wheat flour, with a cocoanut representing his head; seeds of safflower (kusum) represent the nails and teeth; the hair of a blanket represents the hairs on the body; cowries for the eyes; some ground drug the blood, birch bark (bhojpâtra) for the skin. These are covered with three hundred and sixty palâsa leaves, and all is burnt. On the third day they shave and are pure. The Mahâpâtra is dismissed on the eleventh day, and on the twelfth the soul is admitted to the company of the sainted dead. In the case of a person dying at home, on the tenth day the chief mourner offers the balls (pinda), ten in number, in honour of the dead, and daily, during the period of death pollution, lays out a platter (dauna) filled with food along the road by which the corpse was taken to the burning ground. On the tenth day the ceremony of pouring water (tarpan) on the ground in honour of the sun is done, and the clothes of the deceased, with his other personal effects, are given to the Mahâbrâhman, who passes them on for his use in the world of the dead. The funeral feast is known as dûdh ka bhât, because on this occasion milk is mixed with the pulse, and the rice is eaten unwashed.