stealth. No offence is taken on such occasions, whatever may be
said. In Upper India, Mr. Jeorakhan Lal states such songs are sung
at the time of the marriage and are called _Naktoureki louk_ or the
ceremony of the useless or shameless ones, because women, however shy
and modest, become at this time as bold and shameless as men are at the
Holi festival. The following are a few lines from one of these songs:

The wheat-cake is below and the urad-cake is above. Do you see
my brother's brother-in-law watching the dance in the narrow
lane. [532]

A sweetmeat is placed on the wheat-cake; a handsome young
black-guard has climbed on to the top of the wall to see the dance.

When a woman sees a man from afar he looks beautiful and
attractive: but when he comes near she sees that he is not worth
the trouble.

I went to the market and came back with my salt. Oh, I looked
more at you than at my husband who is wedded to me.

5. Conclusion of the marriage.

Several of the ceremonies are repeated at the bridegroom's house
after the return of the wedding party. On the day following them the
couple are taken to a tank walking under a canopy held up by their
friends. Here they throw away their marriage-crowns, and play at
hiding a vessel under the water. When they return to the house a goat
is sacrificed to Dulha Deo and the bride cooks food in her new house
for the first time, her husband helping her, and their relatives and
friends in the village are invited to partake of it. After this the
conjugal chamber is prepared by the women of the household, and the
bride is taken to it and told to consider her husband's house as her
own. The couple are then left together and the marriage is consummated.

6. Widow-marriage and divorce.

The remarriage of widows is permitted but it is not considered as a
real marriage, according to the saying: "A woman cannot be anointed
twice with the marriage oil, as a wooden cooking-vessel cannot be put
twice on the fire." A widow married again is called a _Churiyahi Dauki_
or 'Wife made by bangles,' as the ceremony may be completed by putting
bangles on her wrists. When a woman is going to marry again she leaves
her late husband's house and goes and lives with her own people or
in a house by herself. The second husband makes his proposal to her
through some other women. If accepted he comes with a party of his
male friends, taking with him a new