24 S, C. Das — Marriage Customs in SikMm. [No. 1, 



been in the house of the bride's father, has become acquainted with 

 every detail of it. The fencing round the house of the bride's parents 

 is covered with the branches of thorny plants and nettles. Two addi- 

 tional fences are erected at some distance from the house for the purpose 

 of stopping the kun-chen and also to prevent his running away from 

 the place. 



Guards are stationed at each of these fences to watch the move- 

 ments of the kun-chen who nevertheless succeeds in entering the house 

 either by scaling them, or by some kind of strategy. With the excep- 

 tion of the pag-pon and one or two of his respectable companions, the 

 rest of the party are treated with sham contempt and mockery. When 

 others are served with good chang, bad chang, refuse and coarse kind of 

 food, intended for pigs, &c, are placed before them. These not unfre- 

 quently exchange shai'p words with the female friends and companions 

 of the bride, who sometimes in the way of joke, sometimes in earnest, 

 seek an opportunity to annoy them. If they be a quiet sort of people 

 they generally settle the sham difference with these women by a bribe 

 called mag-lug (the fee of defeat). 



The kun-chen in the dead of night, when all the guards are asleep, 

 makes his way to the place of the bride's parents by either scaling the 

 fences or breaking through them. He comes provided with a pair of 

 leather, or felt boots, and some woollen, or thick sackcloth. On his 

 arrival at the door of the house, he finds that it has been closed from 

 within. 



At this time the bridegroom tries all his resources to get him inside 

 the house. He calls the hun-chen by signs or by a whistle to enter the 

 house by lifting up some of the loose planks of the floor from under- 

 neath the hog-kltang, where pigs and cattle are kept. Sometimes he points 

 out to him the weak part of the roof or a bamboo wall of the house 

 through which a passage is possible If possible the bridegroom quietly 

 comes out of the house to help the kun-chen. If the female relatives of 

 the bride happen to be awake, they light torches called (bag-zi) to 

 beat him. Some among them being friendly, or brought to his side by 

 a bribe, try to extinguish the light. As soon as the kun-chen enters the 

 house he at once wraps himself up with all the clothes that he can get 

 hold of therein. The women now come headed by the bride's sister to 

 beat him with switches and thorny twigs in their hands. In spite of the 

 help that he can obtain from those that are friendly to him, he gets a 

 thorough beating. The more violent among the women beat him mer- 

 cilessly, as if he were the real enemy of the bride. Unable to bear the 

 beating the kun-chen sometimes abuses them, and sometimes he falls on 

 his knees to beg for forgiveness. Sometimes he feigns exhaustion, and 



