86 Major-General Sir J. Malcolm on the Bhills. 



of the guests, pass the night together. According to long estabHshed cus- 

 tom, the new married pair are obliged to leave the house before day-break, 

 and pass the next day in the fields, in some solitary place, about the distance 

 of three or four miles from the village, and they must not return till the 

 dusk of the evening. Their friends, however, send them meat and drink. 

 The necessity of the new married couple passing the first day of their mar- 

 riage, like outcasts, at a distance from any human habitation, is to mark 

 that sense of degradation, which all the natives of Hindustan entertain 

 against a woman, marrying a second husband. That even the wild and ig- 

 norant Bhills should be affected by tliis fastidiousness, would appear some- 

 what like a proof of the sentiment being less allied to a feeling of delicacy, 

 than to some ancient national usage ; for it is not likely, that the modern 

 Bkill could have copied this extraordinary custom from the Brahmenical 

 institutions. 



These second marriages are, most frequently, preceded, amongst the B/iills, 

 by an elopement of the parties ; which, generally, ends in the pardon of the 

 parents and relations, who arc appeased by the seasonable application of 

 some presents. When such connections are formed by the inhabitants of 

 villages, a fixed fine is paid to the Paltls, or head men, and this constitutes 

 part of their dues. 



Ftmeral Ciremonies of the Bhills. 



The Bhills always bury tiieir dead (a very marked distinction from the 



Brahmenical practice of burning). The corpse is wrapt in a shroud of new 



coarse white cloth, and borne on a bier made of bamboos, or any kind of 



sticks. This is carried by some of the relations of the deceased to the 



usual burying-ground, which is always on the bank of a stream. Here the 



shroud is taken off, and the body (if that of a woman) is washed; and the 



shroud being again put on, the corpse is interred in a grave, three or four 



feet deep. The head of the corpse is laid to the south. The bier, and the 



clothes worn by the deceased, before his death, are thrown away, as being 



impure. All the family, and such of the tribe as are in the vicinity, attend 



the funeral; and after the body is. interred, they purify themselves by 



ablutions. It is the custom for the female relations of the deceased, to 



observe a course of lam.entations for five days. They commence their wail- 



ings in the mornings, keep them up for about a quarter of an hour, and 



then resume their domestic occupations. On the fifth day, ceremonies are 



