Marriage is either infant or adult, and in the latter case a girl is
not disposed of without her consent. A bride-price varying from five
to ten rupees is paid, and in the case of a girl given to a widower
the amount is doubled. The Hindu ceremonial has been adopted for the
wedding, and an auspicious day is fixed by a Brahman. In Bengal Sir
H. Risley notes that "Remnants of non-Aryan usage may be discerned in
the marriage ceremony itself. Both parties must first go through the
form of marriage to a mango tree or at least a branch of the tree;
and must exchange blood mixed with sindur, though in the final and
binding act sindur alone is smeared by the bridegroom upon the bride's
forehead and the parting of her hair." As has been pointed out by
Mr. Crooke, the custom of smearing vermilion on the bride's forehead is
a substitute for an earlier anointing with blood; just as the original
idea underlying the offering of a cocoanut was that of substitution
for a human head. In some cases blood alone is still used. Thus Sir
H. Risley notes that among the Birhors the marriage rite is performed
by drawing blood from the little fingers of the bride and bridegroom
and smearing it on each of them. [479] The blood-covenant by which
a bride was admitted to her husband's sept by being smeared with his
blood is believed to have been a common rite among primitive tribes.