ere powerful in southern India in
the seventh century. [49]

The marriage rules of the Kuramwars are interesting. If a girl
reaches adolescence while still single, she is finally expelled
from the caste, her parents being also subjected to a penalty for
readmission. Formerly it is said that such a girl was sacrificed to
the river-goddess by being placed in a small hut on the river-bank
till a flood came and swept her away. Now she is taken to the river
and kept in a hut, while offerings are made to the river-goddess,
and she may then return and live in the village though she is out of
caste. In Madras, as a preliminary to the marriage, the bridegroom's
father observes certain marks or 'curls' on the head or hair of the
bride proposed. Some of these are believed to forecast prosperity
and others misery to the family into which she enters. They are
therefore very cautious in selecting only such girls as possess curls
(_suli_) of good fortune. The writer of the _North Arcot Manual_ [50]
after recording the above particulars, remarks: "This curious custom
obtaining among this primitive tribe is observed by others only in
the case of the purchase of cows, bulls and horses." In the Central
Provinces, however, at least one parallel instance can be given from
the northern Districts where any mark resembling the V on the head
of a cobra is considered to be very inauspicious. And it is told
that a girl who married into one well-known family bore it, and to
this fact the remarkable succession of misfortunes which has attended
the family is locally attributed. Among the Kuramwars marriages can
be celebrated only on four days in the year, the fifth day of both
fortnights of Phagun (February), the tenth day of the second fortnight
of the same month and the third day of Baisakh (April). At the marriage
the bride and bridegroom are seated together under the canopy, with
the shuttle which is used for weaving blankets between them, and they
throw coloured rice at each other. After this a miniature swing is put
up and a doll is placed in it in imitation of a child and swung to and
fro. The bride then takes the doll out and gives it to the bridegroom,
saying: 'Here, take care of it, I am now going to cook food'; while
after a time the boy returns the doll to the girl, saying, 'I must
now weave the blanket and go to tend the flock.' The proceeding
seems a symbolic enactment of the cares of married life and the
joint tending of the baby, th