Storia do Mogor 257.1

257.1

After a Brahman who wishes to marry has applied to his future father-in-law for his daughter's hand, he quits the place where his future wife resides and enters another house, where he is awaited by the relations of the girl. Then, after conversing some time, the bridegroom pretends he is angry, and rising in a great hurry, he puts on a pair of old clogs, takes a staff in his hand, puts a book under his arm, and says to the assembly that he is off for a pilgrimage through the world. He does really go away, but not very far, for the nearest relations of the woman hinder him by their implorations, and promise, for the purpose of appeasing his feigned anger, that he shall be married without delay. As proof that what they say is not a mockery, but the unalloyed truth, they take hold of him and place him on a table and carry him to the bride's door, where the girl's mother is waiting. After she has bathed his feet with cow's milk, and he has wiped them on the clothes he is wearing, they make him sit a little time on a new mat. Then the parents raise him by the hand, and seat him beside the bride on a swing made of boards tied to a beam with ropes. Then while some propel the swing, others break forth into laudatory songs.