Note 85 — D. (continued 2)

According to the same authority, the Orh, Tamta, Lohâr, Bârê, Bhûl, Tirua, Mochi, Dhuni, Koli, and Bâruri are exogamous, but as they advance in wealth, they show a tendency to break up into endogamous groups. The Chamâr, Dholi, Bâdi, and Hurkiya are endogamous, and will eat kachchi and pakki only from members of their own sub-caste. Their rule of exogamy is simply that the recognised descendants of one common ancestor will not intermarry. Some of them, as they are becoming more Hinduised, have adopted the rule of not intermarrying within five generations on the side of the mother and seven on the side of the father. They can marry as many wives as they please, of whom the youngest and best-looking is regarded as head. He says that the Doms do not prostitute their women before marriage; but that among the Bhotiyas it used to be the habit for young men and girls to meet in a special house in the village, where, after drinking, each youth selected a girl and cohabited with her in perfect freedom. The custom is now disappearing. We have here a good example of that form of promiscuity before marriage, of which Dr. Westermarck has collected numerous instances.85