turmeric on the boy. A
married woman touches the cocoanut and waves a lighted lamp seven
times round the bridegroom's head. This is meant to scare off evil
spirits. On arrival at the bride's village the bridegroom touches
the marriage-shed with the branch of a _ber_ or wild plum tree. The
mother of the bride gives him some sugar, rubs lamp-black on his
eyes and twists his nose. The bride and bridegroom are seated side by
side on wooden boards, and after the caste priest (Sadh) has chanted
some sacred verses, water is poured nine times on to the palms of
the bridegroom, and he drinks it. They do not perform the ceremony
of walking round the sacred pole. Girls are usually married at a very
early age, sometimes when they are only a few months old. Subsequently,
when the bridegroom comes to take his bride, her family present her
with clothing and a spinning-wheel, this implement being still in
favour among the Bishnois. When a widow is to be married again she
is taken to her new husband's house at night, and there grinds a
flour-mill five times, being afterwards presented with lac bangles.

8. Disposal of the dead.

The dead are never burnt, but their bodies are weighted with sand-bags
and thrown into a stream. The practice which formerly prevailed among
the Bishnois of burying their dead in the courtyard of the house by
the cattle-stalls has now fallen into desuetude as being insanitary. A
red cloth is spread over the body of a woman, and if her maternal
relatives are present each of them places a piece of cloth on the
bier. After the funeral the mourning party proceed to a river to
bathe, and then cook and eat their food on the bank. This custom is
also followed by the Panwar Rajputs of the Wainganga Valley, but is
forbidden by most of the good Hindu castes. No period of impurity is
observed after a death, but on some day between the fourth and tenth
days afterwards a feast is given to the caste-fellows.

9. Development into a caste.

The Bishnois of the Central Provinces are gradually becoming an
ordinary Hindu caste, a fate which has several times befallen the
adherents of Hindu reformers. Many of the precepts of Jhambaji are
neglected. They still usually strain their water and examine their fuel
before burning it to remove insects, and they scatter flour to feed the
ants and grain for peacocks and pigeons. The wearing of blue cloth is
avoided by most, blue being for an obscure reason a somewhat unlucky