Note 137 — B (continued 3)

2. Girls are married at the age of twelve or fourteen, and unlimited polygamy is allowed. Widows re-marry generally in the family of their late husband, and if a match then is impossible, they marry an outsider, and the levirate in the usual form prevails. A wife can be put away for infidelity, and cannot then marry again in the caste. The marriage ceremonies are conducted in the standard Musalmân form. Bhânrs are generally Sunnis, except in Lucknow, where they are mostly Shiahs, and respect the Pânchonpîr (of whom the most regarded is Ghâzi Miyân) and Sayyid Hasan. To the Pânchonpîr are offered cakes (malîda), sharbat, garlands of flowers, and perfumes. Sayyid Hasan receives cakes, sweetmeats, flowers, and perfumes, at any time during the year. Food is offered to the sainted dead at the Shab-i-barât festival. The chief offering consists of the halwa sweetmeat, and cakes. The Chenr Bhânrs play on the small drum (dholak), and Kashmîris on the drum (tabla) and fiddle (sârangi). A popular proverb describes the Bhânr to be as essential at an entertainment as a tiger in a forest,—Mahfil vîrân jahân Bhânr na bâshad; Jangal vîrân jahân sher na bâshad. They are notoriously exacting and abusive if offended. A proverb runs,—Rânr, Bhânr, Sânr, bigrê burê,—“The rage of a widow, a Bhânr, and a bull is terrible.” Another classes them with the monkey,—jaisê Lakkho bandariya vaisê Manva Bhânr—“Lakkho, the monkey, is like Manva, the actor”—“six of one and half a dozen of the other.” Dr. Buchanan quaintly describes them as “impudent fellows who make wry faces, squeak like pigs, bark like dogs, and perform many other ludicrous feats. They also dance and sign, mimicking and turning into ridicule the dancing boys and girls, on whom they likewise pass many jokes, and are employed on great occasions.”137