her bridesmaids (shyasya), with whom they consort
for a time, and then carry off the bride in their arms.
They convey her only a short way, in order to keep up
the semblance of forcible removal, and then wait and
call the bridesmaids, and with them proceed home-
A TYPICAL BRIDGE
wards until they reach the groom’s house, outside
which they all sit down. Each one of the groom’s
women relations brings them a glass of liquor to show
the pleasure felt at the marriage, and, in the names of
all the gods, they drink to future happiness. On entering
the house the first part of the binding ceremony
of marriage is performed by the elders of the village,
who produce two “ dalangs ” or cones of dough, two
glasses of liquor and rice, and, calling all the gods
to witness, break off the tops of the “ cones ” and
give them to the bride and bridegroom to eat and
the liquor to drink. Feasting now commences, which
lasts cheerfully for a fortnight, each family of relations
taking it in turns to entertain the bridal party, and
liquor is drunk until, as a Bhotia described it, a
man “ is bathed in drink,” land the whole village
ALMOST PERPENDICULAR DESCENT ALONG THE KALI RIVER.
becomes a pandemonium of drunken men and women.
Then follows the second binding ceremony, namely,
the formal rite of Datu, when small pieces of the
cone are broken off and put in a dish, and the
couple are made , to exchange by giving a piece
with one hand and taking with the other. This
ceremony, done before the gods, with the elders and
bridesmaids as witnesses, ties the final knot of wedlocks