others are prohibited from intermarriage. And this
may be a relic of some wider scheme of division of the type common
among the Australian aborigines. The social customs of the Manas are
the same as those of the other lower Maratha castes, as described in
the articles on Kunbi, Kohli and Mahar. A bride-price of Rs. 12-8 is
usually paid, and if the bridegroom's father has the money, he takes it
with him on going to arrange for the match. Only one married woman of
the bridegroom's family accompanies him to the wedding, and she throws
rice over him five times. Four days in the year are appointed for the
celebration of weddings, the festivals of Shivratri and of Akhatij, and
a day each in the months of Magh (January) and Phagun (February). This
rule, however, is not universal. Brahmans do not usually officiate at
their ceremonies, but they employ a Brahman to prepare the rice which
is thrown over the couples. Marriage within the sept is forbidden,
as well as the union of the children of two sisters. But the practice
of marrying a brother's daughter to a sister's son is a very favourite
one, being known as Mahunchar, and in this respect the Manas resemble
the Gonds. When a widow is to be remarried, she stops on the way by the
bank of a stream as she is proceeding to her new husband's house, and
here her clothes are taken off and buried by an exorcist with a view
to laying the first husband's spirit and preventing it from troubling
the new household. If a woman goes wrong with a man of another caste
she is not finally cast out, but if she has a child she must first
dispose of it to somebody else after it is weaned. She may then be
re-admitted into caste by having her hair shaved off and giving three
feasts; the first is prepared by the caste and eaten outside her house,
the second is prepared by her relatives and eaten within her house,
and at the third the caste reinstate her by partaking of food cooked
by herself. The dead are either buried or burnt; in the former case a
feast is given immediately after the burial and no further mourning
is observed; in the latter the period of mourning is three days. As
among the Gonds, the dead are laid with feet to the north. A woman
is impure for seven days after child-birth.

The Manas have Bhats or genealogists of their own caste, a separate
one being appointed for each sept. The Bhat of any sept can only accept
gifts from members of that sept, though he may take food from any one
of