A man must not take a wife from his own sept nor from that of his
mother or grandmother. Girls are commonly married between eight
and twelve years of age; and a customary payment of Rs. 9 is made
to the father of the bride, double this amount being given by a
widower. An unmarried girl seduced by a man of the caste is united
to him by the ceremony used for a widow, and a fine is imposed on
her parents; if she goes wrong with an outsider she is expelled from
the community. In the marriage ceremony the customary ritual of the
northern Districts is followed, [417] and the binding portion of it
consists in the bride and bridegroom walking seven times around the
bhanwar or sacred pole. While she does this it is essential that
the bride should wear a string of black beads round her neck and
brass anklets on her feet. After the ceremony the bride's mother and
other women dance before the company. Whether the bride be a child
or young woman she always returns home after a stay of a few days at
her husband's house, and at her subsequent final departure the Gauna
or going-away ceremony is performed. If the bridegroom dies after the
wedding and before the Gauna, his younger brother or cousin or anybody
else may come and take away the bride after performing this ceremony,
and she will be considered as fully married to him. She is known
as a Gonhyai wife, as distinguished from a Byahta or one married in
the ordinary manner, and a Karta or widow married a second time. But
the children of all three inherit equally. A widow may marry again,
and take any one she pleases for her second husband. Widow-marriages
must not be celebrated in the rainy months of Shrawan, Bhadon and
Kunwar. No music is allowed at them, and the husband must present
a fee of a rupee and a cocoanut to the malguzar (proprietor) of the
village and four annas to the kotwar or watchman. A bachelor who is
to marry a widow first goes through a formal ceremony with a cotton
plant. Divorce is permitted for mutual disagreement. The couple stand
before the caste committee and each takes a stick, breaks it in two
halves, and throws them apart, saying, "I have no further connection
with my husband (or wife), and I break my marriage with him (or her)
as I break this stick."