Uttarakhand 155-
of money, varying according to his own financial status. Normally,
the finance is not directly approached, instead through intimate
associates called taram (key). The lady conveys her reply
through her parents in the form of either retaining the gift or
returning it.
No marriage on Monday
The Bhotia women have complete liberty in exercising their
preference in marriage and many women have remained unmarried
because they could not find suitable match.
A marriage ceremony never takes place on Monday which is
considered inauspicious. In fixing a day for the marriage, Monday
is carefully avoided, as that is universally considered an unlucky
day, and although the date thus fixed is wellknown to both the
families, a pretence is always kept up that the girl's parents are
not going to let her go willingly.
A pretence is always kept up that the prospective bride will
never go voluntarily. There is some semblance of force. On
the day fixed for marriage, the boy visits the girl and pretends to
take her forcibly but often this pretension results in the exchange
of mock fight and the father of the bridegroom byola invites the
bridegroom's friends for a feast at night and issues formal instruc-
tions to them. The party proceeds to the bride's (byolo) village
under cover of darkness. Arriving at the village, they go to
Rambhang and carry the bride in their arms for a short distance,,
where they call the bride's maids and then proceed to the bride-
groom's village. On arriving in front of the bridegroom's house
they are given drinks. On entering the house the first of the
ceremonies begins, the village elders present their Dalangs or
cones of dough with liquor which are given to the bride and
the bridegroom for eating and drinking. This is followed by
drinking bouts which may even last for a fortnight, each family
of relations taking it in turns to entertain the bridal party and
liquor is distributed until "a man is bathed in drink" and the
whole village becomes a pandemonium of drunken men and
women.
The second caremony, the formal rite of Datu, follows. Dough
and fish are given to the bridegroom and the bride who exchange
with each other. This ceremony binds them in wedlock. In