ather and
the other to her brother. The boy's father makes the proposal for
marriage, and the consent of the girl is necessary. At the wedding
turmeric and rice are offered to the sun; some rice is then placed
on the girl's head and turmeric rubbed on her body, and a brass ring
is placed on her finger. The bridegroom's father says to him, "This
girl is ours now: if in future she becomes one-eyed, lame or deaf,
she will still be ours." The ceremony concludes with the usual feast
and drinking bout. If the boy's father cannot afford the bride-price
the couple sometimes run away from home for two or three days, when
their parents go in search of them and they are brought back and
married in the boy's house.

10. Widow-marriage and divorce.

A widow is often taken by the younger brother of the deceased husband,
though no compulsion is exerted over her. But the match is common
because the Bhuiyas have the survival of fraternal polyandry, which
consists in allowing unmarried younger brothers to have access to an
elder brother's wife during his lifetime. [375] Divorce is allowed
for misconduct on the part of the wife or mutual disagreement.

11. Religion.

The Bhuiyas commonly take as their principal deity the spirit of the
nearest mountain overlooking their village, and make offerings to it
of butter, rice and fowls. In April they present the first-fruits
of the mango harvest. They venerate the sun as Dharam Deota, but
no offerings are made to him. Nearly all Bhuiyas worship the cobra,
and some of them call it their mother and think they are descended
from it. They will not touch or kill a cobra, and do not swear by
it. In Rairakhol they venerate a goddess, Rambha Devi, who may be a
corn-goddess, as the practice of burning down successive patches of
jungle and sowing seed on each for two or three years is here known
as _rambha_. They think that the sun and moon are sentient beings,
and that fire and lightning are the children of the sun, and the stars
the children of the moon. One day the moon invited the sun to dinner
and gave him very nice food, so that the sun asked what it was. The
moon said she had cooked her own children, and on this the sun went
home and cooked all his children and ate them, and this is the reason
why there are no stars during the day. But his eldest son, fire,
went and hid in a _rengal_ tree, and his daughter, the lightning,
darted hither and thither so that the sun could not catch her