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262 Visit to the Hills near the Soobanshiri River. QNo. 160. 



the departed for his long journey with food, cooking utensils, and orna- 

 ments of value, so that he may make a respectable appearance in the 

 other world. They attach great importance to their dead being thus 

 disposed of and buried near the graves of their ancestors. If a man of 

 any influence dies in the plains his body is immediately conveyed to 

 the hills to be so interred, should the disease of which he died not be 

 deemed contagious. 



Marriage, although its violation is considered the direst of offences, is 

 with them a mere matter of barter or exchange. Young ladies are in 

 the first instance valued according to the wealth and respectability of 

 their parents. The price is such that few suitors are able to make it up 

 for several years after preliminaries have been arranged, and they pay it 

 accordingly by instalments. It consists, if the damsel be of high family, 

 of two or three Myttons, twenty or thirty pigs, fowls, mhud, and some- 

 times clothes. When the parents are content, or the stipulated amount 

 has been paid, they invite the suitor with his family and friends to come 

 for his bride, and he is entertained that day by the father of the lady. 

 On his return with his wife all the friends and relations accompany 

 him, and the bridegroom or his parents now in their turn have to feast 

 them and his own friends into the bargain for several successive 

 days. There is no further ceremony. The parties are now considered 

 man and wife ; and woe be to him that seduces from her lord the wife 

 so wedded. The adulterer is seized and securely bound, detained under 

 most rigorous treatment for a day or two. If he be powerful his 

 friends come to his assistance, and make offers for his ransom, which 

 must be considerable to be accepted ; but the chances are, he is left to his 

 fate, and if such be the case he is put to death. The woman who has 

 committed the faux pas is less severely dealt with. A little wholesome 

 chastisement, and she is again admitted into the family circle. It must 

 not be omitted that when a marriage is concluded, the bridegroom ex- 

 pects to get fair value with his bride for his pigs, &c. that he has ex- 

 pended on her. If personally, or in default of an adequate trousseau 

 she be found wanting in this respect, there is a dinner, an assemblage 

 of the mutual friends, and the parents of the bride are made to disgorge 

 should it be so determined ; or should they refuse, their daughter is treat- 

 ed as a slave, and not as a member of the family : notwithstanding this, 

 a widow cannot leave her husband's family and heirs to contract a fresh 



