The bridegroom still continues to work in his father-in-law’s house till the next Tuku comes round and the halam ceremony puts an end to his rather laborious honeymoon. For this the bridegroom builds a small house called kithandro, and buys a big pig, which is speared through the heart with a sharp bamboo in front of his parents’ house by the husbands of women born in his clan. It is taken to his father-in-law’s house and there singed and cut up. The head goes to the bride’s father, who also shares with other members of his clan the left fore- and hind-quarters. The chest and right fore- and hind-legs are laid aside. The bride collects cotton from all married women of her clan, and gives them shares of meat from the chest in exchange. In the afternoon all women, married or unmarried, of her clan bring two bobbins of thread each and are regaled with “madhu” in front of her father’s house, returning to their houses at nightfall. At night men of the bridegroom’s clan make preparations to escort the couple to their kithandro, and collect and drink outside his father-in-law’s house, the bride and bridegroom meanwhile remaining inside. The drinking over, they put some meat wrapped in leaves and a “chunga” of “madhu” against the house and call out, “Let them [[150]]come. Any further talking can be done to-morrow. Any further talking can be done the day after to-morrow. It is forbidden to come after cockcrow. If you do not let them come now we will burn your house.” After they have been summoned in this way three or four times the procession emerges: first the wife of a man of the bridegroom’s clan, then the bridegroom in full dress, followed by the bride wearing her loroesü (marriage cloth) for the first time, with the wife of another man of the bridegroom’s clan bringing up the rear. The first and last woman must not be pregnant at the time. Before leaving the house the couple each take in their hands a small piece of meat of the pig which was killed earlier in the day and two pieces of thread. The husband waves his spear widdershins round the hearth before leaving the house, a ritual act of which the meaning is not known. They must both maintain absolute silence from the time they take the meat and thread in their hands to the time the Hantsen completes the ceremonies at the kithandro, whither they are escorted by the bridegroom’s male relations. Four of these relations stay behind, and after asking the way to the kithandro—a mere pretence, of course—pick up the right fore- and hind-legs of the pig and take them there, having let the bridal procession get well on its way first. The couple find the Hantsen waiting for them outside the kithandro. He takes the bridegroom’s spear from him, jabs the butt into the ground and leaves it standing outside the house. The meat and thread he takes into the house, and having poured water over the couple’s hands leads them in. Standing in front of him, the man to the right and the woman to the left, they genuflect to him eight times. They may then speak and he leaves them. The couple sleep in the kithandro that night, but sexual intercourse is forbidden, and two small boys of the bridegroom’s clan sleep with them. In the morning the boys go down to fetch water, talking loudly all the way, for it would be a very bad omen were they to meet a squirrel or other wild animal on the way. During the day neither of the couple may go to the wife’s father’s house. On the third day [[151]]they go with a present of meat, and are feasted there in return.[33]
Three or four days later the ceremonies are completed by the Ponyiratsen (“man-and-wife-magicians”). After a drink of “rohi madhu” the couple go into the jungle alone and bring up a load of yutso leaves and sixty-four small bamboo “chungas” in eight equal bundles. All are cut on the slant except two in different bundles, which are cut with a level rim and are called tsungta. In each “chunga” of the two bundles containing tsungta are put eight pieces of shambuk pith and eight pieces of shamburi pith. When this has been brought the two Ponyiratsen are called to the house. They are two old women, wives or widows of men whom the bridegroom calls aporamo, and who have dragged a stone. These are given a full “chunga” of “rohi” to drink and proceed to tie up little scraps of pork in yutso leaves. They make four parcels each containing four scraps of meat, four each containing six, four each containing eight, four each containing ten, and finally two each containing thirty. These little parcels they put in a basket with a “chunga” of “rohi.” Then each throttles a cock and watches the position of its legs when it dies. If the right leg is down and the left up the husband will die first. If the right is up and the left down the wife will die first. If the legs are crossed the couple will quarrel. The excreta and entrails are also examined in the usual way. The husband then singes the cocks and cuts each in half slantwise, so that the head is in one half and the vent in the other. He puts yutso leaves on the ground on his right and left, and puts the halves of two different cocks on each. These are wrapped in leaves and put in the load with the pork and “madhu.” Then all wash their hands and the Ponyiratsen put eight narrow strips of plantain leaf over each ear of the bride and bridegroom, who sit down in front of them, the husband to the right and the wife to the left. The elder of [[152]]the Ponyiratsen next takes a small basket and puts into it a pair of pewter bracelets and waves it in front of the couple, while she mumbles a prayer that they may be happy and have many children. Only women know the right prayer, which is mumbled purposely in order to prevent the husband hearing it properly. The prayer finishes with “hohoho” said eight times, the other Ponyiratsen keeping count aloud. From the house the old women go to the Ponyiratsentung (“Ponyiratsen tree”) belonging to the “khel,” taking with them the basket containing the parcels of pork and chicken and the “madhu,” and four bundles of bamboo “chungas,” eight yutso leaves without blemish, an egg, and two garments which have been worn by the husband and wife respectively. The old women are supposed to lead away with them all evil spirits. It is therefore considered very unlucky to meet them and their devilish train on their way. When they leave the kithandro the wife shuts the door quickly behind them in order to keep out evil spirits and keep in good. Arrived at the tree the elder Ponyiratsen divides the “chungas” into two equal heaps and puts the egg between them, with a parcel containing thirty pieces of meat on each side. They then go to the younger Ponyiratsen’s house, and having divided up the rest of the meat there the elder one goes home. That night the couple for whom the ceremony is being done must sleep apart.
Next day the Ponyiratsen come again and take the omens in the same way, except that two hens are used instead of two cocks. After swinging the basket containing the bracelets and mumbling the charm, the elder Ponyiratsen lays a bamboo mat on the ground outside the door on the side farthest away from the Road of the Dead. By the mat she lays the two worn garments which she took the day before, the husband’s to the right and the wife’s to the left. She sits at the right end of the mat, facing her assistant Ponyiratsen, who sits at the left end, and rolls an egg along the mat. Omens are drawn from the direction in which the pointed end lies when it comes to rest. If it points towards a hostile village the husband will get heads, if towards the plains money, if towards the house rice. It is [[153]]a very bad omen if it points towards the Road of the Dead. The assistant Ponyiratsen rolls the egg back and the process is repeated eight times. A sickle is then slid along the mat eight times and omens are taken from the direction of its point, just as they were taken from the direction of the pointed end of the egg. When this is finished the elder Ponyiratsen shakes the two cloths eight times each to get rid of any evil there may be in them and returns them to their owners, and as she picks up the mat, gives it a flick and sends the egg, which is still lying on it, as far as possible in the direction opposite to that of the Road of the Dead, saying as she does so, “I am throwing away all evil fortune and poverty.” She then shakes the mat eight times, and both the Ponyiratsen go to their own houses. The wife rolls up the mat and stands it on end inside the door between the mpongki and the lhurhui. The couple must sleep apart that night, and the mat must not be removed before cockcrow next morning. This ceremony of the Ponyiratsen is regarded by Lhotas as a sort of initiation into married life. It is only performed for each individual once in his life. For example, were a bachelor to marry a widow it would be performed for him. Were a married man to take a spinster as a second wife it would be performed for her. But were a married man to take a widow it would not be performed at all.
Among the Southern Lhotas there are certain differences of detail. The first ambassador is usually an old man of the bridegroom’s clan. If the girl’s parents drink the offered “madhu” negotiations are considered to have begun. Later the old man brings a present of meat and “madhu” and says, “This is so-and-so’s meat and ‘madhu.’ Will you eat and drink it?” If the girl’s parents say, “Yes,” the couple are regarded as engaged, and the man will help in his future father-in-law’s fields and make himself generally useful, though he sleeps with his parents till after tsoyuta. For that ceremony the bridegroom prepares “madhu” and kills and cuts up a pig, and goes to the girl’s father’s house accompanied either by an old man of his clan and an old woman of the girl’s clan or vice versa. The old woman enters the house first, followed by the old man, the [[154]]bridegroom bringing up the rear. The girl’s parents offer “madhu” to the old man and woman, drinking in turn some of the “madhu” which has been brought. It is not mixed as among the Northern Lhotas. The engaged couple sit on the bed in the lhurhui, the man to the right and the woman to the left. The old man and woman sit opposite to them, each holding a leaf containing six pieces of the pork they have brought, and all four swing their arms backwards and forwards, while the old man and woman say, “Live long and have many children.” The lantsoa ceremony is performed as among the Northern Lhotas. For the halam ceremony a few details are different. The bride and bridegroom are accompanied to the kithandro, not by two women, but by an old man of the bridegroom’s clan and the wife of a man of his clan. The bridegroom does not wave his spear round the hearth, but carries six pieces of meat and six bobbins of thread, while his wife carries five pieces of meat and five bobbins of thread, which the old man takes from the bridegroom’s hand, and the old woman from the bride’s hand. There is no Hantsen as among the Northern Lhotas.
A well-to-do Lhota usually has two or often three wives. Very occasionally a man will have four or even five. All are of equal status, though the oldest wife naturally occupies a position of some authority in the household. The husband usually sleeps with her in the middle room. It is forbidden for him to have connection with more than one wife on the same night. Possibly a vestige of a former system of group marriage is found in the custom of a Lhota who expects to be away from home for some time giving his brother permission to have marital relations with his wife during his absence.[34] On a man’s death his widow or widows are expected to go to his brother, who will not, however, receive them into his house till all the ornaments on the dead man’s grave [[155]]have been cleared away and he has finally gone to the Land of the Dead. A man who thus takes his dead brother’s wife performs no marriage ceremony and pays no marriage price. If the woman marries a man of another clan, the late husband’s clan realize from the new husband a marriage price equal to the original marriage price. If a woman does not wish to marry again she may keep one of her husband’s mithan heads instead of putting it on his grave. This is equivalent to a vow of perpetual widowhood.
The money which is paid by the husband for his wife is known collectively as oman (marriage-price), but is divided into a number of items. The first payment of all is known as chüka, and is paid not to the girl’s parents, but to her mother’s father or mother’s brother. The amount is Re. 1. This is paid as soon as tsoyuta has taken place. The second item is nzuiman (Rs. 8 to Rs. 10), paid to the girl’s parents as the cost of bringing her up. Thirdly comes nvaman (Rs. 10), the price of not working in his father-in-law’s house. The fourth payment is kitsoman (Rs. 2), the price of not building his father-in-law’s house. The third and fourth items are of course only paid in cases where the bridegroom prefers to pay compensation rather than work in his father-in-law’s house. The fifth item is halamman, the cost of the pork given to the father-in-law at the halam ceremony. The sixth is tsangchüman (Rs. 2), paid in cases where the bridegroom does not distribute wood to members of his father-in-law’s clan. The seventh is sontsoman (four annas), paid if the bridegroom does not build a granary for his father-in-law. The eighth is tsoroman (Re. 1), the price of the bride’s breasts, and the ninth lentamoman (Re. 1), price of intimacy with the bride. Men with land usually let the girl’s parents cut one field once. If not, a tenth payment of one rupee or two rupees is made instead. The eleventh item is otyai-etsoman (the price of feeding the bride’s brothers), the marriage-price proper. This is shared by the girl’s father and brothers. It amounts to about two hundred and fifty baskets of rice, or thirty rupees if paid in cash. The rice or money is paid in instalments, often at long intervals. The result is that it is by no means [[156]]uncommon to find a son paying off the last instalment of his old widowed mother’s marriage-price. Should a woman die without children her husband makes a final payment varying from two rupees to five rupees, called etchhiman (“price of death”). Once they have received etchhiman the girl’s parents can claim no further instalments of otyai-etsoman. If the woman dies leaving children a payment of one or two rupees, called mingishi, is made to her parents or their heirs, who can in this case claim any of the otyai-etsoman which may be outstanding.
Divorce.
There is no ceremony connected with divorce as there is among the Aos, and the proceedings are not protracted, the wife generally settling the matter by running away to the house either of her parents or some admirer. In that case all that remains to be done is to discuss the return of the marriage-price. Sometimes the girl’s parents return the full amount of the marriage-price which they have received up to date, plus a fine of ten rupees, and sometimes, in cases where the marriage-price has already been divided up and spent, it is arranged that the aggrieved husband shall recover the marriage-price from whoever marries his runaway wife. In cases where the woman runs off with another man the co-respondent has to pay the husband the full amount of the marriage-price, plus compensation amounting to fifty or a hundred rupees. It is very rarely that a man simply turns his wife out. If he does so he cannot recover his marriage-price and has to pay her parents or their heirs a fine of ten rupees. He naturally, therefore, puts up with a good deal from his wife, sooner than lose his marriage-price. Among the Aos the divorced wife can claim a share of the household store of grain. Among the Lhotas she can only claim the thread and chickens she brought with her at her marriage or their equivalent, together with the clothes she wears and all the thread there may be in the house. Any ornaments given her by her husband must be returned to him.