THE BHOTIAS OF ALMORA AND BRITISH GARHWAL. 105 



property, and partition, and the rights of the father as against the children I have already 

 noted above. It is not to be forgotten that each son can claim a share irrespective of 

 the number of wives that his father may have : for instance, if there are two wives, and 

 one has one son and the other two, trie shares will be one-third each, and not half to one 

 and a quarter to each of the others. 



Marriage. — The Rajput Bhotias of dattis Darma, Byans and Chaudans intermarry freely, 

 and it is a recognized rule that marriage must take place with some person of a different 

 village, and that if the contracting parties both belong to the same village it is abso- 

 lutely necessary that they should be the descendants of different stocks. The best 

 marriage for a man is with his father's sister's daughter, or his mother's brother's 

 daughter ; but a man may not marry his father's brother's daughter, or his mother's 

 sister's daughter. Similarly, a girl should marry her father's sister's son, or mother's 

 brother's son, but not her father's brother's son, or mother's sister's son. There is no 

 prohibition against a man marrying two sisters, but they cannot be his wives both at the 

 same time: after his wife's death he can marry her sister. The Hindu custom of com- 

 paring horoscopes is never followed. 



In patti Darma the practice of mangni is found, but m pattis Byans and in Chaudans 

 it has been unknown for the last thirty years. When a boy is two months old or more 

 his father sends bread and wine to the father of some girl younger than his son with 

 whom he wishes his son to contract matrimony. If the latter breaks and eats the bread 

 and drinks the wine, the arrangement is considered to be established. Two to three years 

 later the arrangement is kept in memory by the boy's father sending a large vessel of 

 liquor to the girl's parent, and there is feasting of friends and relations. Finally the 

 actual marriage {shadi) takes place when the girl is between seven and eleven years of 

 age, and the gona, or consummation, at the age of maturity. On all occasions great care 

 is shown in choosing lucky dates. 



But although the practice of mangni is found, still it is by no means common. 

 Practically the universal custom of the three pattis Darma, Byans and Chaudans is to 

 arrange marriages at the rambang, which is the village club and generally a very 

 disreputable place. The Bhotias of Johar and Niti look down upon the rambang and 

 will have nothing to do with it in their own country, having given it up many years ago, 

 still they are quite willing to avail themselves of the rambang when they visit pargana 

 Darma. In every village a house, or some spot, is set apart which is called rambangkuri 

 or place of the rambang, at which men and women meet and spend the night singing 

 lewd love-songs and drinking and smoking. Married and unmarried men go there, 

 also single women, and married women up to the time that their first child is born. Girls 

 start to go to the Rambang from the age of ten years, and practically never sleep at home 

 after that age, the result being that a virtuous girl is unknown in pargana Darma. As is 

 to be expected, a system such as this leads to the freest intimacy, and one sees a man 

 walking about with his arm round a girl's waist, both under the same covering shawl, a 

 practice common in Europe but rare in the East. Modesty is unknown, and there is a 

 boldness in the faces of the women. Intentional miscarriages of illegitimate children are 

 not at all uncommon. 



