The ‘‘ Kols” of Chota-Nagpere. 181 
is being arranged, omens are carefully observed, and the match is broken 
off, if they are unfavourable. At the acjual marriage there is much 
feasting and dancing, but little ceremony, The turning point of the 
affair is, when the bride and bridegroom mix and drink off some of 
the beer they have each been helped to; the boy pours some of the 
beer given to him into the girl’s cup, she pours from her cup into the 
boy’s cup, and they drink and thus become of the same “ keelz”’ or 
clan, for the Hos, Moondahs and Oraons are all divided into families 
under this name, and may not take to wife a girl of their own keels. 
This division of the primitive races into something having a 
semblance to caste, will be found in the North Hastern Frontier as well 
as in this province. The Garrows, for instance, are divided into what 
are called ‘‘ maharis,” and a man may not marry a girl of his own 
mahari. 
It is obvious that the custom does not spring from any such notion 
of caste as are found amongst the Hindoos, and that it is not one 
which these races have adopted from the Hindoos, because with a 
Hindoo, caste is destroyed by a marriage out of it. It is equally 
opposed to the custom of the Jews, whose daughters (at least if 
heiresses) were obliged to take husbands of their own tribe.* 
In Singbhoom the bride and bridegroom do not touch each other 
with ‘ sindoor’’, as is the custom in Chota-Nagpore. The Oraons and 
Moondahs may have adopted the custom from the Hindoos, and the 
primitive practice of the race is probably as it is found amongst the 
more isolated Hos. 
A very singular scene may sometimes be noticed in the markets of 
Singbhoom. A young man suddenly makes a pounce on a girl and 
carries her off bodily, his friends covering the retreat (like a group 
from the picture of the rape of the Sabines). This is generally a 
summary method of surmounting the obstacles that cruel parents may 
have placed in the lovers’ path; but though it is sometimes done in 
anticipation of the favourable inclination of the girl herself, and in spite 
of her strugglés and tears, no disinterested person interferes, and the 
girls, late companions of the abducted maiden, often applaud the 
exploit. 
The Ho husband has to pay a high price for his wife, and it is 
* Numbers xxxyvi, 6, 
