THE ABORIGINAL TRIBES. 149 



for a certain time, is universal among the tribes. The youth 

 is then called a lamjan; and it frequently happens that he 

 gets tired of waiting, and induces his fair one to make a 

 moonlight flitting of it. The morality of both sexes before 

 marriage is open to comment ; and some of the tribes adopt 

 the precaution of shutting up all the marriageable young men 

 at night in a bothy by themselves. Infidelity in the married 

 state is, however, said to be very rare; and when it does 

 occur is one of the few occasions when the stolid aborigine 

 is roused to the extremity of passion, frequently revenging 

 himself on the guilty pair by cutting off his wife's nose, and 

 knocking out the brains of her paramour with his axe. 



The marriage ceremony is very elaborate and childish, and 

 is generally borrowed in great part from the Hindus. The 

 bride is in some tribes selected from among first cousins by 

 preference. More usually, however, connection is sought 

 among another tribe. Usually an understanding is come to 

 privately before the formal " asking " takes place, so that a 

 " refusal " is scarcely known. The Pardhan is the ambassador, 

 and arranges the articles of the " marriage settlement/' In 

 contradistinction to the Hindu practice, it is at the bride- 

 groom's house that the ceremony takes place, so that the 

 whole of the expense may fall upon him. Hindiiized tribes, 

 however, practise the reverse. The actual ceremonies consist, 

 first, of an omen to discover the propitious day, on which com- 

 mences a series of repeated carryings to and fro, anointings 

 and sprinklings with various substances, eating together, tying 

 the garments together, dancing together round a pole, being 

 half drowned together by a douche of water, and the inter- 

 change of rings all of which may be supposed to symbolise the 

 union of the parties. The bridegroom sometimes places his foot 

 on the bride's back to indicate her subjection ; and a feigned 



