his extract showing the date on which his marriage
took place; and the owner of the house, who was often unfamiliar with
the bridegroom's identity, would compare it with his own extract. When
they agreed he was taken in and put up for the night, and enjoyed the
society of his wife. The system thus entailed the greatest misery to
large numbers of women, both those who were married to husbands whom
they scarcely ever saw, and those of the higher classes who got no
husbands at all. It is now rapidly falling into abeyance. Hypergamy
is found in the Central Provinces among the subcastes of Kanaujia
Brahmans. The Sarwaria subcaste, which is the highest, takes daughters
from Kanaujias and Jijhotias, and the Kanaujias take them from the
Jijhotias. These and other subcastes such as the Khedawals are also
often divided into two groups of different status, the higher of
which takes daughters from the lower. Usually the parents of the
girl pay a liberal bridegroom-price in money or ornaments. It has
never, however, been carried to the same length here as in Bengal,
and two, or in some cases three, wives are the limit for a man of
the higher classes. One division of Kanaujias is called the Satkul or
seven families, and is the highest. Other Kanaujias, who are known as
Pachhadar, pay substantial sums for husbands for this group, and it is
reported that if such a marriage takes place and the bridegroom-price
is not paid up, the husband will turn his wife out and send her home
to her father. Certain subcastes of Sunars also have hypergamy and,
as between different castes, it exists between the Dangis and Rajputs,
pure Rajputs being held willing to take daughters in marriage from
the highest clans of Dangis.

11. Marriage customs.

A text of Manu prescribes: [409] "If a young woman marry while she is
pregnant, whether her pregnancy be known or unknown, the male child in
her womb belongs to the bridegroom and is called a son received with
his bride." But at present a Brahman girl who is known to be pregnant
will be wholly debarred from the sacrament of marriage. An invitation
to a wedding is sent by means of grains of rice coloured yellow with
turmeric and placed in a brass bowl with areca-nuts over them. All
the members of the caste or subcaste who eat food with the host and
are resident in the same town or close at hand are as a rule invited,
and all relatives of the family who reside at a distance. The head of
the family goes