Among the Birjhias a trunk of mahua with two branches is erected in
the marriage-shed, and on this a dagger is placed in a winnowing-fan
filled with rice, the former representing the bridegroom and the
latter the bride. The bride first goes round the post seven times
alone, and then the bridegroom, and after this they go round it
together. A plough is brought and they stand upon the yoke, and seven
cups of water having been collected from seven different houses,
four are poured over the bridegroom and three over the bride. Some
men climb on to the top of the shed and pour pots of water down on to
the couple. This is now said to be done only as a joke. Next morning
two strong men take the bridegroom and bride, who are usually grown
up, on their backs, and the parties pelt each other with unhusked
rice. Then the bridegroom holds the bride in his arms from behind and
they stand facing the sun, while some old man ties round their feet
a thread specially spun by a virgin. The couple stand for some time
and then fall to the ground as if dazzled by his rays, when water is
again poured over their bodies to revive them. Lastly, an old man
takes the arrow from the top of the marriage-post and draws three
lines with it on the ground to represent the Hindu trinity, Brahma,
Vishnu and Siva, and the bridegroom jumps over these holding the bride
in his arms. The couple go to bathe in a river or tank, and on the
way home the bridegroom shoots seven arrows at an image of a sambhar
deer made with straw. At the seventh shot the bride's brother takes
the arrow, and running away and hiding it in his cloth lies down at
the entrance of the bridegroom's house. The couple go up to him, and
the bridegroom examines his body with suspicion, pretending to think
that he is dead. He draws the arrow out of his cloth and points to
some blood which has been previously sprinkled on the ground. After
a time the boy gets up and receives some liquor as a reward. This
procedure may perhaps be a symbolic survival of marriage by capture,
the bridegroom killing the bride's brother before carrying her off,
or more probably, perhaps, the boy may represent a dead deer. In
some of the wilder tracts the man actually waylays and seizes the
girl before the wedding, the occasion being previously determined,
and the women of her family trying to prevent him. If he succeeds in
carrying her off they stay for three or four days in the forest and
then return and are married.