7. Special Customs
Meanwhile the guests sit round drinking handias or earthen pots full of rice-beer. The bride and bridegroom come out and retire a second time and are called out for the following rite. A vessel of beer is brought and the bride carries a cupful of it to the bridegroom’s brother, but instead of giving it into his hand she deposits it on the ground in front of him. This is to seal a kind of tacit agreement that from that time the bridegroom’s brother will not touch his sister-in-law, and was probably instituted to mark the abolition of the former system of fraternal polyandry, customs of an analogous nature being found among the Khonds and Korkus. “Then,” Father Dehon continues, “comes the last ceremony, which is called khirītengna handia or the handia of the story, and is considered by the Oraons to be the true form of marriage which has been handed down to them by their forefathers. The boy and girl sit together before the people, and one of the elder men present rises and addressing the boy says: ‘If your wife goes to fetch sāg and falls from a tree and breaks her leg, do not say that she is disfigured or crippled. You will have to keep and feed her.’ Then turning to the girl: ‘When your husband goes hunting, if his arm or leg is broken, do not say, “He is a cripple, I won’t live with him.” Do not say that, for you have to remain with him. If you prepare meat, give two shares to him and keep only one for yourself. If you prepare vegetables, give him two parts and keep only one part for yourself. If he gets sick and cannot go out, do not say that he is dirty, but clean his mat and wash him.’ A feast follows, and at night the girl is brought to the boy by her mother, who says to him, ‘Now this my child is yours; I do not give her for a few days but for ever; take care of her and love her well.’ A companion of the bridegroom’s then seizes the girl in his arms and carries her inside the house.”