THE BHOTIAS OF ALMORA AND BRITISH GARHWAL. 99 



the altar, this being the binding part of the ceremony. The bride puts her foot on a 

 sit, or stone used for grinding, and as she goes round pretends to slip and is caught by 

 the bridegroom each time, in this way signifying that in future all lovers will be ground 

 to powder. 



Before marriage a girl wears a nose-ring called bait, but after marriage and until 

 her husband's death she invariably wears the nath (nose-ring). 



A man can, and often does, have two or three wives. A marriage is always accom- 

 panied by lavish expenditure. 



Remembering that each village contains a different branch of Bhotia Rajputs, it has 

 to be noted that intermarriage within the village is strictly forbidden ; marriage must take 

 place with some one of another village. For instance, a Biljwal cannot marry a Biljwal 

 though he can marry a Martolia. 



Widow-marriage, in the sense of a marriage with all the honour and dignity of a 

 first marriage, is unknown. 



However, it is a common practice for widows to go and live with other men ; but the 

 unions thus created never occupy the same rank in popular estimation as an ordinary 

 marriage, although no disfavour is shown such as outcasting from food or drink. The 

 man in question pays a sum of money to the deceased husband's relatives, who give in 

 return what is usually known as a ladawa, or relinquishment. Generally the widow of an 

 elder brother goes as wife to the younger brother. 



Divorce is known, and the form of divorce is simplicity itself. A man tells his wife 

 to go, and she leaves him. If she wishes to live with another man the union is not known 

 as a pakki shadi, or true marriage. The man in question has to pay for her to her 

 former husband, who on his part gives a ladawa or relinquishment. If the divorced 

 woman has daughters by the first husband, he will get the benefit from them, that is, he 

 will receive the money for them when they get married, and they are his heirs and not 

 heirs of the second husband. 



Death. — The funeral ceremonies are on the analogy of the Hindu rites. If a boy 

 dies before the bratbandha ceremony he is buried, and not burnt, and salt is put into the 

 grave with him ; otherwise the usual custom is cremation. All the sons and kinsmen of 

 the gotra shave the head, moustache and beard, and the eldest son sits in gat kriya. If 

 the eldest son is not at home the second son takes his place, and if no son is at home the 

 priest does the duty. The kinsmen of the gotra fast for one meal. 



Gold, called Hiran, is put into a dying man's mouth, and after death the body is tied 

 in a coarse white winding-sheet (katara) and fastened on to the bier {jhanjt), and over all 

 is thrown a silk shroud {pitambar). The funeral procession is composed of mourners 

 who go bare-headed preceded by three boys, or men, holding a strip of white cloth one 

 at each end and the third in the middle. This is called bat. After them comes another 

 man throwing khila. This peculiar custom is unknown in Kumaun or Garhwal amongst 

 hillmen. 



At the pyre a head-bone is kept to be thrown into the holy lake of Mansarowar, or 

 into the Ganges ; and until the opportunity for doing this may come, it is put aside 

 with some gold in a small brass box in the hollow of a tree or under a stone. All the 



