22 BHOTIA MEHALS 



Should the female in the mean time make a choice for herself, the previ- 

 ous contract is compromised by the payment of a sum of money. The 

 consideration given by the bridegroom to the father of the bride, varies 

 from three hundred to one thousand rupees : a corresponding portion is 

 returned, which consists of domestic stock, live and dead, and in some of 

 the Ghats is considered as the property of the wife, by whom it is manag- 

 ed for her own benefit. The females are chiefly employed in weaving 

 blankets and coarse serges ; the produce of their looms, after supplying 

 the family with clothing, is also, in a great measure, at their own disposal. 

 The nuptial ceremonies are uninteresting, they are invariably accompa- 

 nied with riot and drunkenness. 



The Bhotias universally burn their dead ; in Darma, this ceremony 

 is performed in the month of Kartik only ; the bodies of those who die 

 intermediately, are committed temporarily to the earth, and at the ap- 

 pointed season, the remains are taken up and burnt. 



On these occasions the heir of the deceased is expected to entertain 

 the whole of his kindred, and is commonly impoverished by the prodiga- 

 lity of the expense incurred. A number of goats and Yaks, according to 

 his means, are sacrificed at the pile ; of the latter animals, one is selected 

 for the particular service of the deceased, and is previously led about with 

 many ceremonies, adorned with flowers and laden with cloth, sugar, spice, 

 and such articles ; precedence in the sacrifice is also given to it, and the 

 decapitation is performed by the son-in-law, or some other near relation 

 to the deceased. In the selection of this Yak, the departed spirit is ap- 

 pealed to, and its choice is supposed to be indicated in the animal which 

 is the first to shake its tail, when the stall is inspected by the heir. The 

 Bhotias universally profess extreme veneration for the manes of their 

 fore-fathers^ small monuments to their memory are numerous in the 



vicinity 



