Note 119 — Chapter III · TOTEMISM AND FETISHISM.

All through Upper India, at low-caste marriages, the bride’s brother accompanies the pair as they revolve in the marriage shed, and sprinkles parched grain over them out of a sieve as a charm for good luck and a means of scaring the demon which causes barrenness. So Irish brides in old times used to be followed by two attendants bearing high over the heads of the couple a sieve filled with meal, a sign of the plenty that would be in the house, and an omen of good luck and the blessing of children.119 We have already seen that this rite survives in the custom of flinging rice over the newly-married pair as they leave for the honeymoon.