The exogamous sections are known as baink. The marriage of persons
belonging to the same section and of first cousins is forbidden. Girls
are generally married at an early age, as there is a scarcity of
women in the caste, and they are snapped up as soon as available. As a
natural consequence a considerable bride-price is paid, and the desire
of the Kachera to make a profit by the marriage of his daughter
is ridiculed in the following saying, supposed to be his prayer:
"O God, give me a daughter. In exchange for her I shall get a pair
of bullocks and a potful of rupees, and I shall be rich for the
rest of my life. As her dowry I shall give her a sickle, a hoe and a
spinning-machine, and these will suffice for my daughter to earn her
livelihood." The usual sum paid for a girl is Rs. 50. The marriage
ceremony is performed by walking round the sacred pole, and after it
the couple try their strength against each other, the bride trying to
push a stone pestle on to a slab with her foot and the groom pushing
it off with his. At the end of the wedding an omen is taken, a silver
ornament known as dhal [231] which women wear in the ear being fixed on
to a wall and milk poured over it. If the ornament is displaced by the
stream of milk and falls down, it is considered that the union will
be a happy one. The proceeding perhaps symbolises roughly the birth
of a child. The marriage of widows is permitted, and in consequence
of the scarcity of women the widow is usually married to her late
husband's younger brother, if there be one, even though he may be only
a child. Divorce is permitted. Liaisons within the caste are usually
overlooked, but a woman going wrong with an outsider is expelled
from the community. The Kacheras commonly burn the dead. They employ
Brahmans for ceremonial purposes, but their social status is low and
no high caste will take water from them. They eat flesh and fish, and
some of them drink liquor, while others have given it up. They have
a caste committee or panchayat for the punishment of social offences,
which is headed by officials known as Malik and Diwan. Their favourite
deity is Devi, and in her honour they sow the Jawaras or pots of wheat
corresponding to the gardens of Adonis during the nine days prior to
the Ramnaomi and Dasahra festivals in March and September. Some of
them carry their devotion so far as to grow the plants of wheat on
their bodies, sitting in one posture for nine days and almost giving
up food and drink. At the Diwali festival they worship the furnace
in which glass bangles are made.