734 Account of the Origin, etc. of the [July, 



Customs. — Under this head I shall state the usages observed at 

 births, naming, weaning, togavirilis, marriage and death, aggregating 

 what is common, and distinguishing what is peculiar to the Bodo or 

 Dhimals. The customs of both people have a great similitude, owing 

 to their perfect simplicity. They are derived, in fact, from nature, 

 and nature as little strained by arbitrary devices of man as can well be. 

 At births the mother herself cuts the navel-string, so soon as she has 

 recovered strength for the act. No midwives are found, so that nature 

 must do all, or the mother and offspring perish together. But delive- 

 ries are almost always very easy, and death in childbed scarcely known 

 — a blessing derived from the active and unsophisticated manners of the 

 sex. The idea of uncleanness occasioned by births, and by deaths also, 

 is recognised ; but the period of uncleanness and segregation is very 

 short, and the purificatory rites consist merely of bathing and shaving, 

 performed by the parties themselves. The infant is named immediately 

 after birth, or as soon as the mother comes abroad, which is always in 

 4 or 5 days after delivery. There are no family names, or names derived 

 from the gods. Most Bodo and Dhimals bear meaningless designations, 

 or any passing event of the moment may suggest a significant term : 

 thus a Bhotia chief arrives at the village and the child is called Jinkhap ; 

 or a hill peasant arrives, and it is named Gongar, after the titular or 

 general designation of the Bhotias. Children are not weaned so long 

 as their mother can suckle them, which is always from two to three 

 years — sometimes more — and two children, the last and penultimate, 

 are occasionally seen at the breast together. The delayed period of 

 weaning will account in part for the limited fecundity of the women. 

 When a Bodo or Dhimal comes of age, the event is not solemnised by 

 any rite or social usage whatever. Marriage takes place at maturity, 

 the male being usually from 20 to 25 years of age, and the female, from 

 15 to 20. Courtship is not sanctioned : the parents or friends negociate 

 the wedlock, though in so simple a state of society it cannot be, but the 

 parties have frequently met and are well known to each other. The 

 Hindus wisely and decorously attach much discredit to the parent, who 

 takes a " consideration" for the grant of his daughter in marriage. No 

 such delicacy is recognised by Bodo or Dhimal parents, who invariably 

 demand and receive a price, which is called Jan in the language of the 

 former, and Gandi in that of the latter people. The amount varies 



