Marriage within the _khero_ is prohibited and also the union of first
cousins. It is considered disgraceful to accept a price for a bride,
and it is said that this is not done even by the parents of poor girls,
but the caste will in such cases raise a subscription to defray the
expenses of her marriage. In the northern Districts the marriages of
Dhobis are characterised by continuous singing and dancing at the
houses of the bridegroom and bride, these performances being known
as _sajnai_ and _birha_. Some man also puts on a long coat, tight
down to the waist and loose round the hips, to have the appearance
of a dancing-girl, and dances before the party, while two or three
other men play. Mr. Crooke considers that this ritual, which is
found also among other low castes, resembles the European custom of
the False Bride and is intended to divert the evil eye from the real
bride. He writes: [550] "Now there are numerous customs which have
been grouped in Europe under the name of the False Bride. Thus among
the Esthonians the false bride is enacted by the bride's brother
dressed in woman's clothes; in Polonia by a bearded man called the
Wilde Braut; in Poland by an old woman veiled in white and lame;
again among the Esthonians by an old woman with a brickwork crown;
in Brittany, where the substitutes are first a little girl, then the
mistress of the house, and lastly the grandmother.
"The supposition may then be hazarded in the light of the Indian
examples that some one assumes on this occasion the part of the
bride in order to divert on himself from her the envious glance of
the evil eye." Any further information on this interesting custom
would be welcome.
The remarriage of widows is allowed, and in Betul the bridegroom goes
to the widow's house on a dark night wrapped up in a black blanket,
and presents the widow with new clothes and bangles, and spangles and
red lead for the forehead. Divorce is permitted with the approval of
the caste headman by the execution of a deed on stamped paper.