Note 67 — C

Marriage rules. 8. There is no trace of polyandry among them. It is noticed as peculiar to the Cheros that, unlike the allied Dravidian tribes, whenever they go any distance from home, as to the jungle after cattle, to pay their rent, etc., they always bring their wives with them. It is a tradition among them that formerly the custom was that if a man remained six months absent from his wife, she was at liberty to form a fresh connection: but it is said that this is now obsolete. The standing price for a bride is five rupees, and it is entirely a question of means how many wives a man has. Monogamy appears to be the rule. Some Cheros admit that concubinage is allowed, and that a widow or divorced woman may go and live with anyone she likes; but this custom, too, appears becoming gradually discredited. Girls are said to be allowed little liberty before marriage; but it seems certain that many marriages are carried out when pregnancy is the result of an ante-nuptial intrigue,67 in which case the alliance is recognized on her father giving a tribal feast (bojh bhât); but if her paramour be of another caste she is permanently excluded. Like those in Chota Nâgpur68 the Mirzapur Cheros profess to marry their children between the age of five and ten. Any relation may act as the negotiator (agua). Though her father receives the bride-price it is spent on the marriage, and he is expected to give her a dowry as far as his means will allow. The customs regarding divorce, widow-marriage, the levirate, and succession, are the same as among the Kols. The Gharjaiyân marriage, where the youth serves for his bride on probation in the house of her father, is common.69