under it side by side with a married female relative, and goes through a performance which is called Surige. An enclosure is made round them with cotton thread passed ten times round four earthen pitchers placed at the four corners. Five married women come with boiled water, and wash off the oil and turmeric, with which the bride and the bridegroom and his companion have been anointed. The matrons then clothe them with the new cloths offered to the ancestors on the first day. After some ceremonial, the thread forming the enclosure is removed, and given to a Jangam. The Surige being now over, the bridegroom and his relatives are taken back to the god's room. The bride and her relatives are now taken to the pandal, and another Surige is gone through. When this is over, the bride is taken to her room, and is decorated with flowers. At the same time, the bridegroom is decorated in the god's room, and, mounting on a bullock, goes to the village temple, where he offers a cocoanut. A chaplet of flowers called bashingam is tied to his forehead, and he returns to the house. In the god's room a panchakalasam, consisting of five metal vases with betel and vibhūti (sacred ashes) has been arranged, one vase being placed at each corner of a square, and one on the middle. By each kalasam is a cocoanut, a date fruit, a betel leaf and areca nut, and one pice (a copper coin) tied in a handkerchief. A cotton thread is passed round the square, and round the centre kalasam another thread, one end of which is held by the family guru, and the other by the bridegroom who sits opposite to him. The guru wears a ring made of kusa grass on the big toe of his right foot. The bride sits on the left hand side of the bridegroom, and the guru ties their right and left hands respectively with kusa grass. Hastapūja then
