. He writes: [550] "Now there are numerous customs which have
been grouped in Europe under the name of the False Bride. Thus among
the Esthonians the false bride is enacted by the bride's brother
dressed in woman's clothes; in Polonia by a bearded man called the
Wilde Braut; in Poland by an old woman veiled in white and lame;
again among the Esthonians by an old woman with a brickwork crown;
in Brittany, where the substitutes are first a little girl, then the
mistress of the house, and lastly the grandmother.

"The supposition may then be hazarded in the light of the Indian
examples that some one assumes on this occasion the part of the
bride in order to divert on himself from her the envious glance of
the evil eye." Any further information on this interesting custom
would be welcome.

The remarriage of widows is allowed, and in Betul the bridegroom goes
to the widow's house on a dark night wrapped up in a black blanket,
and presents the widow with new clothes and bangles, and spangles and
red lead for the forehead. Divorce is permitted with the approval of
the caste headman by the execution of a deed on stamped paper.

3. Other social customs.

After a birth the mother is allowed no food for some days except
country sugar and dates. The child is given some honey and castor-oil
for the first two days and is then allowed to suckle the mother. A
pit is dug inside the lying-in room, and in this are deposited water
and the first cuttings of the nails and hair of the child. It is
filled up and on her recovery the mother bows before it, praying for
similar safe deliveries in future and for the immunity of the child
from physical ailments. After the birth of a male child the mother
is impure for seven days and for five days after that of a female.

4. Religion.

The principal deity of the Dhobis is Ghatoia, the god of the
_ghat_ or landing-place on the river to which they go to wash their
clothes. Libations of liquor are made to him in the month of Asarh
(June), when the rains break and the rivers begin to be flooded. Before
entering the water to wash the clothes they bow to the stone on which
these are beaten out, asking that their work may be quickly finished;
and they also pray to the river deity to protect them from snakes and
crocodiles. They worship the stone on the Dasahra festival, making
an offering to it of flowers, turmeric and cooked food. The Dhobi's
washing-stone is believed to be haunted by th