1 APPENDIX — MARRIAGES. 207
2 which the needy parents or guardians had received
3 money, ornaments, or clothes. If both parties be the
4 subjects of one Chief, they appear before him, and either
5 he, or his oflScers, satisfies them, or refers the decision to
6 a Punchayt of the same class as the disputants. If the
7 complainant and defendant happen to reside in separate
8 jurisdictions, and either of the Chiefs persevere in evad-
9 ing a compliance with the rule in such cases, or reject
10 the award of a Punchayt, Gaha, or self-indemnification,
11 is adopted by the opposite party, and the subjects, pro-
12 perty, and cattle of his neighbour are picked up, and
13 detained until satisfaction be oflfered and procured. The
14 other side issues its letters of marque, and this pernici-
15 ous system is frequently carried to the commission of
16 serious outrage, and to infractions of the public tran-
17 quillity.*
18 It is not a rare occurrence for a parent or a guardian
19 to be convicted of marrying a girl to one man, after her
20 betrothraent to another. The Chief, or a Punchayt, in
21 general, in such cases, gives a verdict that the plain-
22 tifiF is entitled to a female from the family ; and if there
23 be not one, the parents or guardian must find a sub-
24 stitute ; or, as a dernier expedient, to which the in-
25 jured party very unwillingly assents, the money he may
26 have expended, or a trifle in excess with interest, is
27 decreed to be restored to him, that he may find a spouse
28 elsewhere.
29 • A demand was made on the state of Putteeala, by a subject of the
30 Nabah Rajah, for the price of a buffaloe ralued at 15 Rupees, but which
31 on the settlement of the account by reprisal, exceeded 900. The case is
32 still in dependance between them. Between the same states and by the
33 same system, one rupee accumulated in a few years to 1500.