st with their parents but with the
Sendia or headman of the caste. The last of them was Karun Panwar
of Tumsar, who was empowered by the Bhonsla Raja of Nagpur to act in
this manner, and was accustomed to receive an average sum of Rs. 25
for each widow or divorced woman whom he gave away in marriage. His
power extended even to the reinstatement of women expelled from the
caste, whom he could subsequently make over to any one who would
pay for them. At the end of his life he lost his authority among
the people by keeping a Dhimar woman as a mistress, and he had no
successor. A Panwar widow must not marry again until the expiry of
six months after her husband's death. The stool on which a widow
sits for her second marriage is afterwards stolen by her husband's
friends. After the wedding when she reaches the boundary of his
village the axle of her cart is removed, and a new one made of _tendu_
wood is substituted for it. The discarded axle and the shoes worn by
the husband at the ceremony are thrown away, and the stolen stool is
buried in a field. These things, Mr. Hira Lal points out, are regarded
as defiled, because they have been accessories in an unlucky ceremony,
that of the marriage of a widow. On this point Dr. Jevons writes [395]
that the peculiar characteristic of taboo is this transmissibility of
its infection or contagion. In ancient Greece the offerings used for
the purification of the murderer became themselves polluted during
the process and had to be buried. A similar reasoning applies to the
articles employed in the marriage of a widow. The wood of the _tendu_
or ebony tree [396] is chosen for the substituted axle, because it has
the valuable property of keeping off spirits and ghosts. When a child
is born a plank of this wood is laid along the door of the room to
keep the spirits from troubling the mother and the newborn infant. In
the same way, no doubt, this wood keeps the ghost of the first husband
from entering with the widow into her second husband's village. The
reason for the ebony-wood being a spirit-scarer seems to lie in its
property of giving out sparks when burnt. "The burning wood gives
out showers of sparks, and it is a common amusement to put pieces
in a camp fire in order to see the column of sparks ascend." [397]
The sparks would have a powerful effect on the primitive mind and
probably impart a sacred character to the tree, and as they would
scare away wild animals, the property of avertin