268 AN EARLY DUTCH ACCOUNT OF INDIA
marriage is performed and the ceremonies aforesaid
are observed, which is the first day, the father of the
bride giveth a feast unto the friends and also food to
the poor, the which lasteth five days in succession, and
the homam aforesaid may likewise last the five days.
On the seventh day the bride goeth forth with the
bridegroom and is borne, even by night, through the
principal streets of the city in a palakijn (palanquin)
with many torches and bassoons and fireworks, accom-
panied by their friends, some on horses, some on ele-
phants, since they seek to make their estate honourable
in every wise; and thus the bride is brought openly
to the house of the bridegroom. There she abideth
three or four days if she be young and be yet unable
to know man; and then they bring her again to her
father's house. But when she is come to woman's
estate, then she abideth henceforth with her husband.
When the children of the Bramines are wedded, they
are no more called 'bramasarijs (Sanskrit "brdhmacarya,
11 chaste "), but grahastas (Sanskrit grihastha, " house-
holder "), and receive the second cord, consisting of
three strings. And commonly they add to the second
cord the third also, and it serveth them for an upper
garment; for the Bramines may not go with the upper
part of the body bare. And although they go with the
upper portions of their persons exposed, as is the com-
mon practice, nevertheless, since they have the third
cord, they hold it as a garment, and it is counted among
them as if they went with their bodies covered. Every
ten years that they gain in age, they add yet another
