Marriage is adult, but the more civilised Bhuiyas are gradually
adopting Hindu usages, and parents arrange matches for their children
while they are still young. Among the Pabudias some primitive customs
survive. They have the same system as the Oraons, by which all
the bachelors of the village sleep in one large dormitory; this is
known as Dhangarbasa, _dhangar_ meaning a farmservant or young man,
or Mandarghar, the house of the drums, because these instruments are
kept in it. "Some villages," Colonel Dalton states, "have a Dhangaria
basa, or house for maidens, which, strange to say, they are allowed to
occupy without any one to look after them. They appear to have very
great liberty, and slips of morality, so long as they are confined
to the tribe, are not much heeded." This intimacy between boys and
girls of the same village does not, however, commonly end in marriage,
for which a partner should be sought from another village. For this
purpose the girls go in a body, taking with them some ground rice
decorated with flowers. They lay this before the elders of the village
they have entered, saying, 'Keep this or throw it into the water,
as you prefer.' The old men pick up the flowers, placing them behind
their ears. In the evening all the boys of the village come and dance
with the girls, with intervals for courtship, half the total number of
couples dancing and sitting out alternately. This goes on all night,
and in the morning any couples who have come to an understanding
run away together for a day or two. The boy's father must present a
rupee and a piece of cloth to the girl's mother, and the marriage is
considered to be completed.
Among the Pabudia or Madhai Bhuiyas the bride-price consists of two
bullocks or cows, one of which is given to the girl's father and
the other to her brother. The boy's father makes the proposal for
marriage, and the consent of the girl is necessary. At the wedding
turmeric and rice are offered to the sun; some rice is then placed
on the girl's head and turmeric rubbed on her body, and a brass ring
is placed on her finger. The bridegroom's father says to him, "This
girl is ours now: if in future she becomes one-eyed, lame or deaf,
she will still be ours." The ceremony concludes with the usual feast
and drinking bout. If the boy's father cannot afford the bride-price
the couple sometimes run away from home for two or three days, when
their parents go in search of them and they are brought back and
married in the boy's house.