hters and daughters-in-law
may eat of the cakes, but not widows, who are probably too impure
to join in a sacred sacrament Every person admitted to partake of
the marriage-cakes is held to belong to the family, so that all
other members of it have to observe impurity for ten days after a
birth or death has occurred in his house and shave their heads for
a death. When the family is so large that this becomes irksome it is
cut down by not inviting persons beyond seven degrees of relationship
to the Meher sacrament This exclusion has sometimes led to bitter
quarrels and actions for defamation. It seems likely that the Meher
may be a kind of substitute for the sacrificial meal, at which all
the members of the clan ate the body of the totem or divine animal,
and some similar significance perhaps once attached to the wedding-cake
in England, pieces of which are sent to relatives unable to be present
at the wedding.

8. Customs at the wedding

Before the wedding the women of each party go and anoint the village
gods with oil and turmeric, worshipping them, and then similarly
anoint the bride and bridegroom at their respective houses for three
days. The bridegroom's head is shaved except for his scalp-lock;
he wears a silver necklet on his neck, puts lamp-black on his eyes,
and is dressed in new yellow and white clothes. Thus attired he goes
round and worships all the village gods and visits the houses of his
relatives and friends, who mark his forehead with rice and turmeric
and give him a silver piece. A list of the money thus received is
made and similar presents are returned to the donors when they have
weddings. The bridegroom goes to the wedding either in a litter or
on a horse, and must not look behind him. After being received at
the bride's village and conducted to his lodging, he proceeds to the
bride's house and strikes a grass mat hung before the house seven
times with a reed-stick. On entering the bride's house the bridegroom
is taken to worship her family gods, the men of the party usually
remaining outside. Then, as he goes through the room, one of the
women who has tied a long thread round her toe gets behind him and
measures his height with the thread without his seeing. She breaks
off the thread at his height and doubling it once or twice sews it
round the top of the bride's skirt, and they think that as long as
the bride wears this thread she will be able to make her husband do
as she likes. If the g