About six months or a year after this offering, the third ceremony takes place, and is called “Kharoo munee puredheen” (or putting the bracelets and necklaces on the bride). The expense incurred on these occasions corresponds with the means of the bridegroom and his parents. To show the nature of the presents made, we subjoin the following list:—
| Rs. | Ans. | Pice. | |
| Bracelets | 20 | 0 | 0 |
| Ear-rings | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| Necklaces of several strings, of various sizes and colours | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Madulee, a silver charm ornament suspended from the neck | 1 | 8 | 0 |
| Four silver finger-rings, 4 annas each | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| One piece of Mongah silk cloth, five cubits long | 1 | 8 | 0 |
| Betel nut and betel leaf | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Twelve bhars (or baskets) of treacle, rice, curds, pittagoorie kutcha (ground rice) chandagoorie puckah (baked rice flour): each basket valued at four annas each | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Total rupees | 46 | 0 | 0 |
The fourth and last ceremony is Shadee (or marriage), when a great feast is given at the damsel’s house by her parents to the friends of both families. The presents consist of:—
| Rs. | Ans. | Pice. | |
| Fish, rice, diel, oil, salt, greens, and chillies | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Betel nut and betel leaf | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| One piece of Moongah silk | 1 | 8 | 0 |
| One Burkopper cotton cloth, for the girl’s father or brother | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Gao dhun, dower or price of the girl, paid to her parents in ready cash | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| Total rupees | 15 | 8 | 0 |
The bridegroom is kept awake all night by feasting, dancing, and singing; and in the morning, all having broken their fast, the bridegroom accompanies his bride to his own dwelling in a regular procession. Drums, cymbals, and gongs take the lead; the bride follows either in a palkee, or mounted on a pony; or, if very poor, she walks in the midst of her female acquaintances, covered from head to foot with a white cotton cloth or veil thrown loosely over her; and the bridegroom and his friends bring up the rear. On arrival at the bridegroom’s house, his friends partake of a repast, and return to their homes in the course of the afternoon. The young couple then take up their abode, generally in a newly erected house adjoining their parents’ dwelling. The whole expense of the marriage conducted on this scale amounts to sixty-five rupees fourteen annas; but only the better orders disburse such a sum. If the parties are in very affluent circumstances, however, many hundreds of rupees are expended. The poorer class, from inability to incur further outlay, are not unfrequently married at the second ceremony of Nowae toolun for four or five rupees, including every expense.
Should the parents of the girl, contrary to the marriage contract or betrothment, give their daughter to another person, it is incumbent on them to refund the value of the presents they may have received on different occasions for a number of years previously. Yet in few countries, probably, will the number of violated contracts or promises of marriages be found to exceed those of Assam. The litigation and ill-will consequent on these ill-advised agreements is incalculable, and the complaints under this head in the civil courts are innumerable.
There is a remarkable similarity between one of the customs in Assam and that practised by the Patriarchs of old. Jacob served Laban as a servant or bondsman many years to obtain in marriage Leah and Rachel, who were sisters; and he was not allowed to marry the younger before the elder. So in Assam a man may marry two sisters, but he must marry the elder before the younger. It is not uncommon, when a man is poverty stricken, to engage to live and work for several years for the father of the girl he wishes to marry. He is then called a Chapunea, a kind of bondsman, and is entitled to receive bhat kupper, food and clothing, but no wages; and at the expiration of the period of servitude, if the girl does not dislike him, the marriage takes place. The man is looked on in the family as a khanu damad (or son-in-law), and is treated kindly. If the girl’s father be very wealthy, and he has no sons, he will sometimes select, from some equally respectable family, a husband for his daughter, and bring him up in his own house. The youth so selected is likewise called a Chapunea, and inherits the whole of his father-in-law’s property. If a woman’s husband dies, though she may be only eighteen or twenty years of age, she can never marry again. She is considered a Baree, or widow for life; but very few women—if any—so circumstanced lead a life of celibacy: they prefer submitting to be selected as companions, and are then contemptuously designated batuloo (refuse or offal). And this condition of existence among the lower orders is almost as common as marriage; for the becoming a man’s Dhemuna stree (alias mistress or companion) involves no expense for bhar bhete (marriage present) or gaodhun (dower), and is therefore more convenient. The offspring of this connection inherit all the rights of legitimate issue, and are not the less respected in society; there is, therefore, no bar to the loose and immoral habits so prevalent among the poorer classes in Assam. The indulgence of these is further facilitated by the ease with which the marriage-tie may be dissevered. No reference is necessary to either the temporal or ecclesiastical courts: dissolution is simply effected by the husband, if displeased with his wife or doubtful of her fidelity. On these occasions he merely assembles his friends, and in their presence addresses his wife in these words:—“Henceforth I look on you as my mother and sister;” and tearing a betel leaf into two pieces the marriage is dissolved, and the man and woman are free to select fresh partners. The divorce is equally complete if the husband distributes a little salt to each member of the assembly of friends, making the same speech to the wife. The Cacharies, a simple-minded, honest, and industrious tribe of Assamese, cut off a branch of the kuddum tree before a select body of friends, when the husband declares he has divorced his wife, and the ceremony is completed.
The funeral obsequies of the Assamese are performed agreeably to Hindoo usages. The body is burnt as soon as possible after death. Jogees, Weavers, and Cacharies bury their dead in the same manner as Moossulmans. A curious practice prevails amongst the Assamese of giving salt to their friends assembled to bear witness to many of the common occurrences of life. If a man adopts a son, he distributes salt to his friends in token of a person having been appointed to succeed to his property. If he buys a piece of land or purchases a slave, or if a dispute is settled by arbitrators, salt is in like manner distributed amongst a few friends who testify to the fairness of the transaction; and amongst themselves these agreements or settlements are as binding as laws could make them.
When an Assamese has been excommunicated by the priests for any civil offence, the expiation of his crime and his restoration to society are effected by the payment of a fine, called chundrayen, amounting to four rupees: dhurmdund (twelve annas), feeding the Punchayet or jury, (one rupee) at most about six rupees. If the offender be very poor, one rupee ten annas will suffice to pay for “purachit” (absolution); which is granted by the priest.
By the ancient Assam laws, slavery existed in a variety of forms. All born of a free slave by a free father, as well as those of pure slave parentage, were considered slaves. Free women married to slaves became, with their offspring, slaves. The king had the power to grant to his nobles and spiritual advisers portions of the free population as slaves, which the owner could dispose of in any manner he thought proper: they were designated Bohoteahs. Prisoners of war were often granted to individuals as slaves; and criminals who had a sentence of death passed upon them had it commuted to slavery, and were assigned to certain masters. The free people were at liberty to mortgage themselves for debts; remaining in bondage for a number of years or until the sum borrowed was paid off; and as the debtor was seldom in a situation to liquidate his obligation, he continued a slave to his creditor for the remainder of his life. In each district the value of slaves varied considerably.