In Narsinghpur the Murhas appear to have no regular exogamous
divisions. Some of them remember the names of their _kheros_ or
ancestral villages and do not marry with families belonging to the
same _khero_, but this is not a regular rule of the caste. Generally
speaking, persons descended through males from a common ancestor do not
intermarry so long as they remember the relationship. In Mandla they
have five divisions, of which the highest is Purbia. The name Purbia
(Eastern) is commonly applied in the Central Provinces to persons
coming from Oudh, and in this case the Purbia Murhas are probably
the latest immigrants from home and have a superior status on this
account. Up till recently they practised hypergamy with the other
groups, taking daughters from them in marriage, but not giving their
daughters to them. This rule is now, however, breaking down on account
of the difficulty they find in getting their daughters married. The
children of brothers and sisters may marry in some places, but in
others neither they nor their children may marry with each other. Anta
Santa or the exchange of girls between two families is permitted. The
bridegroom's father has to pay from five to twenty rupees as a _chari_
or bride-price to the girl's father, which sum is regarded as the
remuneration of the latter for having brought up his daughter. In
the case of the daughter of a headman the bride-price is sometimes as
high as Rs. 150. In Damoh a curious survival of marriage by capture
remains. The bridegroom's party give a ram or he-goat to the bride's
party and these take it to their shed, cut its head off and hang it
by the side of the _kham_ or marriage-pole. The brother-in-law of the
bridegroom or of his father then sallies forth to bring back the head
of the animal, but is opposed by the women of the bride's party, who
belabour him and his friends with sticks, brooms and rolling-pins. But
in the end the head is always taken away. The binding portion of the
marriage is the _bhanwar_ or walking round the sacred post. When the
bride is leaving for her husband's house the women of her party take
seven balls of flour with burning wicks thrust into them, and place
them in a winnowing-fan. They wave this round the bride's head and
then throw the balls and after them the fan over the litter in which
the bride is seated. The bridegroom's party must catch the fan, and
if they let it fall to the ground they are much laughed at for their
clumsiness. When the pair arrive at the bridegroom's house, the fan is
again waved over their heads; and a cloth is spread before the house,
on which seven burning wicks are placed like the previous ones. The
bride walks quickly over the cloth to the house and the bridegroom
must keep pace with her, picking up the burning flour balls as he
goes. When the pair arrive at the house the bridegroom's sister shuts
the door and will not open it until she is given a present. Divorce
and the remarriage of widows are permitted.