for a livelihood. The bridegroom,
however, continues obdurate until they promise him a cow or a bullock,
when he consents to eat. The bride's family usually spend some twenty
or more rupees on her wedding, and the bridegroom's family about fifty
rupees. A widow is expected to marry her Dewar or deceased husband's
younger brother, and if she takes somebody else he must repay to the
Dewar the expenditure incurred by the latter's family on her first
marriage. Divorce is permitted for misconduct on the part of the wife
or for incompatibility of temper.

4. Funeral rites

The caste bury the dead, placing the head to the north. They make
libations to the spirits of their ancestors on the last day of Phagun
(February), and not during the fortnight of Pitripaksh in Kunwar
(September) like other Hindu castes. They believe that the spirits of
ancestors are reborn in children, and when a baby is born they put a
grain of rice into a pot of water and then five other grains in the
names of ancestors recently deceased. When one of these meets the
grain representing the child they hold that the ancestor in question
has been born again. The principal deity of the caste is Singbonga, the
sun, and according to one of their stories the sun is female. They say
that the sun and moon were two sisters, both of whom had children, but
when the sun gave out great heat the moon was afraid that her children
would be burnt up, so she hid them in a _handi_ or earthen pot. When
the sun missed her sister's children she asked her where they were,
and the moon replied that she had eaten them up; on which the sun
also ate up her own children. But when night came the moon took her
children out of the earthen pot and they spread out in the sky and
became the stars. And when the sun saw this she was greatly angered
and vowed that she would never look on the moon's face again. And it
is on this account that the moon is not seen in the daytime, and as
the sun ate up all her children there are no stars during the day.

5. Occupation

The caste make and sell all kinds of articles manufactured from the
wood of the bamboo, and the following list of their wares will give an
idea of the variety of purposes for which this product is utilised:
_Tukna_, an ordinary basket; _dauri_, a basket for washing rice
in a stream; _lodhar_, a large basket for carrying grain on carts;
_chuki_, a small basket for measuring grain; _garni_ and _sikosi_,
a small bask