1888 .] 
W. H. P. Driver— The Astirs. 
9 
but may be offered at any time. All the above sacrifices are offered by 
the people themselves, without the assistance of pdhans. The pdhati*, 
or priest, who must be either an Asur or a Munda, offers sacrifices at 
the Sarhul in May, and at the Klianiydri or harvest festival in Novem¬ 
ber. Tuesday and the change of the moon are considered good times to 
offer these sacrifices. The Ddrhd and Ghurail are evil spirits who afflict 
people, and when they make their presence felt, they have to be propi¬ 
tiated with a sacrifice, by the pahan, and politely turned out. 
Dances. —Asurs dance the jhumar , domlcait , thariyd, luchgi , desaoli, 
and jatrd or hhariyd. They use only the dhol and mdndar, and they 
have no horns, flutes, cymbals &c. 
Food. —They eat cows, pigs, buffaloes, tigers, rats, and lizards, 
and also poisonous snakes, such as the nag and jara for the cure 
of lumbago. The snakes’ heads are cut off, and the flesh is separat¬ 
ed from the bones and fried. 
Marriage customs. —The marriage ceremonies of the Asurs are pe¬ 
culiar. The parents supply the trousseau, but the bridegroom gives his 
share towards the feast, and also gives a ddli of Rs. 5 to the 
parents. Parents arrange marriages and the ceremony takes place at 
the bridegroom’s father’s house. The following preparations are made 
for a wedding. In front of the house a shed of Sal branches is erected, 
and at some little distance all round this a temporary Sal fence is put 
up. This enclosure is called the marua-tdnd , and in the centre of 
it are planted a long bamboo and a mangoe branch, and alongside 
of these is placed a bind , or basket, for storing grain, which is filled 
with earth and planted with a few grains of corn. The bride and 
bridegroom dine with the rest of the party. After dinner they anoint 
each other all over with oil and turmeric and then retire, while the 
rest of the party enjoy themselves drinking and dancing in the marud- 
tand. At dawn the couple are brought forth and made to stand at the 
front door on a yoke covered with hher grass, while two girls (relatives 
of both parties) fetch two small ghards of water and splash the happy 
pair, using twigs from the mangoe branch. The family party then 
go into the house, and the pair sitting together mark each other on 
the foreheads with sindur , using their right-hand little fingers. They 
all then go out and join the rest of the party dancing in the marud-tdnd. 
After the sun is well up, the married couple go home, and the wife com¬ 
mences to cook to show that she has undertaken her household duties. 
* [This term is spelled sometimes pahan sometimes pdham Pos¬ 
sibly it may be a corruption of the Hindi brahman or bamhan. Compare the Burmese 
‘ paunha’ for brahman, in Bigandet’s Legend of Gaudama, vol. I, p. 29, footnote IS, 
Ed.] 
B 
