Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 7.djvu/210

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TOREYA
178

actually resorts to beating with them, he has to feed a hundred men. In addition, the culprit has to pay a small fine, and both parties have to be purified at the temple. A similar punishment is enforced for beating, or threatening to beat with a broom. For adultery the guilty person is excommunicated, and is admitted back into the caste only after the death of one of the parties concerned. He then has to feed a large number of castemen, or pay a money fine, and, prostrating himself before the assembly, he is beaten with a tamarind switch. He further makes obeisance to the Ejaman, and washes his feet. The Ejaman then purifies him by a small piece of burning camphor in his mouth.

When a married girl reaches puberty, she is taken to her father's house, and her husband constructs a hut with branches of Ficus glomerata. On the last day of her confinement therein, the hut is pulled down, and the girl sets fire to it. The house is purified, and the female relations go to the houses of the Ejaman and caste people, and invite them to be present at a ceremonial. A small quantity of turmeric paste is stuck on the doors of the houses of all who are invited. The relations and members of the caste carry betel, and other articles, on trays in procession through the streets. The girl is seated on a plank, and the trays are placed in front of her. Rice flour, fruits, betel, etc., are tied in her cloth, and she is taken into the house. In the case of an unmarried girl, the hut is built by her maternal uncle.

Marriage is always celebrated at the house of the bridegroom, as there is a legend that a Rājah belonging to the Toreya caste had a son, who was taken to the house of his bride elect, and there murdered. The