Si Migratori^ Tribes of 



ing to set off their shape. A boddice (called Kanterie) fitting 

 neatly to the form in front, reaches from the neck to the hip, 

 conceals the bosom, but is left open behind ; this with a gown 

 (petia) fastened by a noose beneath the waist, and falling in 

 loose folds to the feet, and a scarf (cadhi) thrown carelessly 

 over the shoulder, completes their dress, which is made of 

 cloth died with bright and varied colours. From their hair, 

 and the tapes that bind their dress, are suspended long strings 

 of courie shells, massive rings of silver clasp the ankles, and 

 the arms, from the wrist to the shoulder, are loaded with broad 

 rings of ivory, cut from the elephants'' tusks, and dyed with 

 varied dyes. The ceremonies attending the marriage of a wi- 

 dow are, as is usual among the natives of the east, few ; the 

 gift of a new cloth, and the selection of a fortunate hour on 

 which to conduct the bride home, comprise the whole. With 

 the young bride, a more lengthened rejoicing is made. On the 

 marriage being assented to, the bridegroom pays one or two 

 hundred rupees to the parents of the bride, and at the early 

 part of the day, which the brahman who has been consulted 

 has pronounced auspicious, two pyramids are constructed, by 

 placing earthen pots one above another, tenor twelve feet apart, 

 a bundle of firewood is laid behind each pyramid, and two 

 wooden pestles, used by the women of every house in India to 

 clean the grain, are planted perpendicularly between. The 

 ceremonies last five days, during which the friends are feasted, 

 the bride and bridegroom sitting on the ground between the 

 pyramids, and on the fifth day, after being bathed by their re- 

 spective male and female relations, the bridegroom leads to his 

 tent his bride. The next morning the young wife rises early, 

 and carrying the hand-mill near the feet of her husband's pa- 

 rents, there grinds the corn* necessary for the meals of the 



* Shortly after midnight the women in the east rise and begin to grind 

 corn for the family, cheering tliemselves in their lonely task by singing 

 their labour songs. In several parts of Scripture this custom of grinding 

 the com for the day's consumption is noticed, "In the day when the 

 grinders cease because they are few, a id the doors bo shut in the streets 

 because the sound of the grinding is low. Ecc. xii. 3 and 4 ; See also 

 Ex. xi. 5. and Is. xlvii. 1. where it says, ^Come down and sit in the dust, O 

 virgin daughter of Babylon ; sit on the ground ; there is no throne, O 



