tual the
boy keeps his eyes shut, and it is believed that if he should open
them before its completion, his children would be born blind. When
the bride leaves her father's house she and all her relatives mourn
and weep noisily, and the bride continues doing so until she is well
over a mile from her own village. Similarly on the first three or
four visits which she pays to her parents after her wedding, she
begins crying loudly a mile away from their house, and continues
until she reaches it. It is the etiquette also that women should
cry whenever they meet relatives from a distance. In such cases
when two women see each other they cry together, each placing her
head on the other's shoulder and her hands at her sides. While they
cry they change the position of their heads two or three times, and
each addresses the other according to their relationship, as mother,
sister, and so on. Or if any member of the family has recently died,
they call upon him or her, exclaiming 'O my mother! O my sister! O
my father! Why did not I, unfortunate one, die instead of thee?' A
woman when weeping with a man holds to his sides and rests her head
against his breast. The man exclaims at intervals, 'Stop crying,
do not cry.' When two women are weeping together it is a point of
etiquette that the elder should stop first and then beg her companion
to do so, but if it is doubtful which is the elder, they sometimes
go on crying for an hour at a time, exciting the younger spectators
to mirth, until at length some elder steps forward and tells one of
them to stop. The Chauhans permit the remarriage of widows, and a
woman is bound by no restrictions as to her choice of a second husband.

The goddess Durga or Devi is chiefly revered by the caste, who observe
fasts in her honour in the months of Kunwar (September) and Chait
(March). When they make a _badna_ or vow, they usually offer goats
to the goddess, and sow the _Jawaras_ or Gardens of Adonis in her
name, but except on such occasions they present less costly articles,
as cocoanuts, betel-leaves, areca-nuts and flowers. On the Dasahra
festival they worship the _lathi_ or stick which is the badge of
office of the village watchman. They were formerly addicted to petty
theft, and it is said that they worshipped the _khunta_ or pointed
rod for digging through the wall of a house. The caste usually burn
the dead, but children whose ears or noses have not been pierced are
buried. Children who die be