age
their heads and hands will shake. After they have drunk, each takes
a handful of rice, and squeezes it into a ball. The girl drops hers
through the slits in the bamboo floor as an offering to the spirits,
but the boy tosses his into the air. If it breaks or rolls, it is a
bad sign, and the couple is apt to part, or their children die. In
such a circumstance, the marriage is usually deferred, and tried
again at a later date; but repeated scattering of the rice generally
results in the annulling of the agreement. [82] Should anything in the
dwelling fall or be broken during the ceremony, it is halted at once;
to proceed further that night would be to court misfortune. However,
it may be undertaken again a few days later.

The guests depart immediately after the rice ceremony. No food or
drink is offered to them, nor is there any kind of celebration. [83]

That night the couple sleep with a pillow between them, [84] and
under the groom's pillow is a head-axe. Early in the morning, the
girl's mother or some other elderly female of her family awakens
them, and leads the way to the village spring. Arriving there, she
pours water in a coconut shell, which contains a cigar from which the
couple have drawn smoke; [85] she adds leaves of bamboo and _agiwas_,
and washes their faces with the liquid, "to show that they now have
all in common; that the tobacco may keep them and their children from
becoming insane; that the _agiwas_ will keep them in health; and the
bamboo will make them strong and insure many children, the same as it
has many sprouts." On their way home, the boy cuts a _dangla_ shrub
(_Vitex negundo_ L.) with his head-axe, and later attaches it to the
door of their home, "so that they may have many children."

Throughout that day the doors and windows are kept tightly closed;
for should the young people see birds or chickens having intercourse,
they are apt to become insane, and their first born have sore or
crossed eyes.

The next morning is known as _sipsipot_ ("the watching"). Accompanied
by the girl's parents, the couple goes to the father's fields. On
the way they carefully observe any signs which animals, birds, or
nature, may give them. When they reach the fields, the boy shows his
respect for his elders by cutting the grass along the borders with
his head-axe. This service also counteracts any bad sign which they
may have received that morning. He next takes a little of the soil on
his axe, and both