156 . Uttvrakhand
the meanwhile, the groom's men have been lavishing their care
and hospitality on the bride's maids who are then allowed to go
home. They are in turn invited to the bride's village. It some-
time happens that a girl is carried in reality by force from the
Rambhang but unless and until she eats "Dalang", "Datu" and
drinks liquor with her captor she is not considered to be married.
End of a marriage
Divorce in a society of free love prevails in abundance. It is
a very simple process. The man, however, has an upper hand.
If a man wishes to be separated from his wife, all that he has
to do is to ask her to leave him. To quote Sherring "In
divorcing a woman, the husband gives her a piece of white
cloth. The cloth is invariably white, the idea being to give
her, and her children, by any subsequent marriage, purity
and legitimacy. Until the cloth is given, no divorce has taken
place; in fact, should a man elope with another man's wife
he is shoe beaten and his goats and sheeps stolen from him with
their packs, while the chidren are considered illegitimate." A
girl thus marries any number of times. Thus the chances of
staying together are very fickle.