Some years ago in Balaghat the bride and bridegroom sat and ate food
together out of two leaf-plates. When they had finished the bride took
the leaf-plates, ran with them to the marriage-shed, and fixed them in
the woodwork so that they did not fall down. The bridegroom ran after
her, and if she did not put the plates away quickly, gave her one or
two blows with his fist. This apparently was a symbolical training of
the bride to be diligent and careful in her household work. Among the
Raj-Gonds of Saugor, if the bridegroom could not come himself he was
accustomed to send his sword to represent him. The Sawasin carried the
sword seven times round the marriage-post with the bride and placed
a garland on her on its behalf, and the bride put a garland over
the sword. This was held to be a valid marriage. In a rich Raj-Gond
or Khatola Gond family two or three girls would be given with the
bride, and they would accompany her and become the concubines of the
bridegroom. Among the Maria Gonds of Chanda the wedded pair retire
after the ceremony to a house allotted to them and spend the night
together. Their relatives and friends before leaving shout and make
merry round the house for a time, and throw all kinds of rubbish and
dirt on it. In the morning the couple have to get up early and clear
all this off, and clean up the house. A curious ceremony is reported
from one part of Mandla. When a Gond girl is leaving to be married,
her father places inside her litter a necklace of many strings of
blue and yellow beads, with a number of cowries at the end, and an
iron ring attached to it. On her arrival at the bridegroom's house
his father takes out the necklace and ring. Sometimes it is said
that he simply passes a stone through the ring, but often he hangs
it up in the centre of a room, and the bridegroom's relatives throw
stones at it until one of them goes through the ring, or they throw
long bamboo sticks or shoot arrows at it, or even fire bullets from
a gun. In a recent case it is said that a man was trying to fire
a bullet through the ring and killed a girl. Until a stone, stick,
arrow or bullet has been sent through the ring the marriage cannot
take place, nor can the bridegroom or his father touch the bride,
and they go on doing this all night until somebody succeeds. When the
feat has been done they pour a bottle of liquor over the necklace and
ring, and the bride's relatives catch the liquor as it falls, and drink
it. The girl wears the necklace at her wedding, and thereafter so long
as her husband lives, and when he dies she tears the string to pieces
and throws it into the river. The iron ring must be made by a Gondi
Lohar or blacksmith, and he will not accept money in payment for it,
but must be given a cow, calf, or buffalo. The symbolical meaning
of this rite does not appear to require explanation. [63] In many
places the bride and bridegroom go and bathe in a river or tank on
the day after the wedding, and throw mud and dirt over each other,
or each throws the other down and rolls him or her in the mud. This
is called Chikhal-Mundi or playing in the mud. Afterwards the bride
has to wash the bridegroom's muddy clothes, roll them up in a blanket,
and carry them on her head to the house. A see-saw is then placed in
the marriage-shed, and the bridegroom's father sits on it. The bride
makes the see-saw move up and down, while her relations joke with her
and say, 'Your child is crying.' Elsewhere the bridegroom's father sits
in a swing. The bride and bridegroom swing him, and the bystanders
exclaim that the old man is the child of the new bride. It seems
possible that both customs are meant to portray the rocking of a baby
in a cradle or swinging it in a swing, and hence it is thought that
through performing them the bride will soon rock or swing a real baby.