THE PEOPLE
When a girl attains pubertY she is held to be polluted for five days, and at the end of that time drink is distributed among her Principal relations. Marriage usually occurs after puberty and preferentially follows édurn ménarikam. Overtures are first made by offering presents to the bride's parents in the usual way and the actual ceremony takes place in the bride's house. The rites are much as usual, the couple hooking their little fingers together, having their cloths knotted, and being bathed in saffron water. The relations feast on pork and strong drink. The untying of the knotted cloths is the final ceremony. The dead are usually buried,but the richer Dombus cremate them. Near relations shave on the tenth day.
When selecting a site for a house, the Dombus place, at the four corners, one grain of rice upon two others and shield them with stones and earth. If after several days the top grain still remains balanced on the other two, the site is considered lucky.Children are supposed to be born without souls and to be afterwards chosen as an abode by the soul of an ancestor. The coming of the ancestor is signalized by the child dropping a chicken bone which has been thrust into its hand and much rejoicing follows among the assembled relations.
Some of the Dombus of the Párvatípur Agency follow many of the customs of the low country castes (including ménarikam), and say they are the same as the Paidis (or Paidi Málas) of the plains adjoining, with whom they intermarry. These Paidis, who speak Telugu, are 40,000 strong and are also (p. 203) a low and criminal caste. Paidi Mála means 'hill Mála,' but the Paidis repudiate with indignation all connection with the ordinary Málas (and in most places with the Dombus also) and in the south and west of the district claim descent from Válmiki, the compiler of the Rámáyana. At their weddings they follow the ceremonies of the plains. Some of the Paidis cultivate land, but most are traders. They are nearly all Vaishnavites.
The Bottadas are 50,000 strong and their traditions say they came from Bastar. They speak a kind of Uriya (or perhaps Bastari) and are principally found near Naurangpur, Kótapád and Umarkót. They are perhaps the best cultivators in Jeypore, stand high in the "social scale and wear the sacred thread, permission to use which was bought by their ancestors from the Rája of Jeypore. They are split'into the three endogamous divisions of Bodo ('big'), or pure Bottadas; Madhya ('middle'), descendants of Bottada men by women of other castes; and Sanno ('little'), children of Madhya men and other women.
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