1849.] Kocch, Bodo and Dhimdl people. 715 



from 10 to 15 rupees among the Dhimals, from 15 to 45 among the 

 Bodo. I cannot learn the cause of the great difference. A youth who 

 has no means of discharging this sum, must go to the house of his 

 father-in-law elect and there literally earn his wife by the sweat of his 

 brow, labouring, more judaico, upon mere diet for a term of years, 

 varying from two as an average, to five and even seven as the extreme 

 period. This custom is named Gaboi by the Bodo — Gharjya by the 

 Dhimals. It, of course, implies a good deal of intercourse between the 

 betrothed youth and damsel prior to their nuptials ; but from all I can 

 learn, instances of opportunity abused are most rare. The legal nature 

 and effects of the nuptial contract have been already explained under 

 the head of laws : what concerns fecundity, longevity, &c. under the 

 head of medicine, as a branch of religion. The marriage ceremony is 

 little perplexed with forms. After the essential preliminaries have been 

 arranged, a procession is formed by the bridegroom elect and his friends, 

 who proceed to the bride elect's house, attended by two females spe- 

 cially appointed, to put red lead or oil on the bride elect's head, when 

 the procession has reached her home. There a refection is prepared, 

 after partaking of which the procession returns, conducting the bride 

 elect to the house of the groom's parents. So far, the same rite is 

 common to the Bodo and Dhimal — the rest is peculiar to each. 

 Among the Dhimals, the Deoshi now proceeds to propitiate the gods 

 by offerings. Data and Bidata, who preside over wedlock, are invok- 

 ed, and betel leaf and red lead are presented to them. The bride 

 and groom elect are next placed side by side, and each furnished with 

 five pauns, with which they are required to feed each other, while 

 the parents of the groom cover them with a sheet, upon which the 

 Deoshi, by sprinkling holy water sanctifies and completes the nuptials. 

 Among the Bodo the bride elect is anointed at her own home with oil ; 

 the elders or the Deoshi perform the sacred part of the ceremony, 

 which consists in the sacrifice of a cock and a hen, in the respective 

 names of the groom and bride, to the sun ; and next, the groom, rising 

 makes salutation to the bride's parents, and the bride, similarly attests 

 her future duty of reverence and obedience towards her husband's 

 parent ; when the nuptials are complete. A feast follows both with 

 Bodo and Dhimals, but is less costly among the former than among 

 the latter — as is said, because the higher price paid for his wife by the 



