Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c19.s10.12

v1.c19.s10.12

² The privileges of our Rajput chieftains on the marriages of their vassals and cultivating subjects are confined to the best dishes of the marriage feast or a pecuniary commutation. This is, however, though in a minor degree, one of the vexatious claims of feudality of the French system, known under the term noçages, where the seigneur or his deputy presided, and had the right to be placed in front of the bride, “et de chanter à la fin du répas, une chanson guillerette.” But they even carried their insolence further, and “poussèrent leur mépris pour les villains (the agricultural classes of the Rajput system) jusqu’à exiger que leurs chiens eussent leur couvert auprès de la mariée, et qu’on les laissât manger sur la table” (Art. ‘Noçages,’ Dict. de l’anc. Régime).