To
give a daughter in marriage and to sell her, are about the same thing.
Almost every parent makes his daughter an article of traffic, refusing
to give her up until the sum of money for which he consented to let her
go, is paid. Men of distinction generally lay out this money for jewels,
which they present to their daughters on their wedding-day. You will
infer from what I have just said, that the parties to be married have
nothing to do in the choice of each other.
There are properly but four months in the year in which marriages can
take place, namely March, April, May, and June. This probably arises
from the circumstance that these are the hottest seasons of the
year--the seasons when the people have more leisure to attend to them.
From the harvest, also, which has just been gathered in, they are
provided with means to perform the various ceremonies.
The marriage ceremony lasts five days. The bride and bridegroom are
first placed under a puntel, a kind of bower, covered with leaves, in
front of the house. This is superbly adorned. The married women then
come forward, and perform the ceremony called _arati_, which is as
follows. Upon a plate of copper, they place a lamp made of a paste from
rice flour.
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