Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 80, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 January 1918 — Odd Wedding Custom. [ARTICLE]

Odd Wedding Custom.

An odd wedding custom prevails among the Santals, a tribe in India, by which, after an agreement has been reached between the parents, who usually do the bargaining, the youth’s friends, after a short interval, visit the girl and give her a piece of cloth as a sign of betrothal. The money is then paid. This is called “the binding down of the thatch”—and a date tor the wedding is fixed. The next step is for each party to tie a knot in a string for each day that is to intervene before the wedding day. Then the parties separate; day by day a “knot is untied, and when the end of the string is reached the real knot is tied that makes the couple one.