In the Central Provinces the tribe have now no exogamous groups; they
avoid marriage with blood relations as far back as their memory carries
them. At their weddings the couple walk round the _srawan_ or heavy
log of wood, which is dragged over the fields before sowing to break up
the larger clods of earth. In the absence of this an ordinary plough or
harrow will serve as a substitute, though why the Pasis should impart
a distinctively agricultural implement into their marriage ceremony
is not clear. Like the Gonds, the Pasis celebrate their weddings at
the bridegroom's house and not at the bride's. Before the wedding the
bridegroom's mother goes and sits over a well, taking with her seven
_urad_ cakes [430] and stalks of the plant. The bridegroom walks
seven times round the well, and at each turn the parapet is marked
with red and white clay and his mother throws one of the cakes and
stalks into the well. Finally, the mother threatens to throw herself
into the well, and the bridegroom begs her not to do so, promising
that he will serve and support her. Divorce and the remarriage of
widows are freely permitted. Conjugal morality is somewhat lax, and
Mr. Crooke quotes a report from Pertabgarh to the effect that if a
woman of a tribe become pregnant by a stranger and the child be born
in the house of her father or husband, it will be accepted as a Pasi
of pure blood and admitted to all tribal privileges. The bodies of
adults may be buried or burnt as convenient, but those of children
or of persons dying from smallpox, cholera or snake-bite are always
buried. Mourning is observed during ten days for a man and nine days
for a woman, while children who die unmarried are not mourned at all.