The bride’s people have provided a coconut shell filled with water and a wooden dish [81] containing cooked rice.  These are placed between the couple, as they sit in the center of the room (Plate XIV).  The boy’s mother drops two beads into the shell cup, and bids them drink; for, “as the two beads always go together at the bottom, so you will go together and will not part.  The cool water will keep you from becoming angry.”

Great care must be exercised in handling the cup; for should the contents be shaken the couple will become dizzy, and in old age their heads and hands will shake.  After they have drunk, each takes a handful of rice, and squeezes it into a ball.  The girl drops hers through the slits in the bamboo floor as an offering to the spirits, but the boy tosses his into the air.  If it breaks or rolls, it is a bad sign, and the couple is apt to part, or their children die.  In such a circumstance, the marriage is usually deferred, and tried again at a later date; but repeated scattering of the rice generally results in the annulling of the agreement. [82] Should anything in the dwelling fall or be broken during the ceremony, it is halted at once; to proceed further that night would be to court misfortune.  However, it may be undertaken again a few days later.

The guests depart immediately after the rice ceremony.  No food or drink is offered to them, nor is there any kind of celebration. [83]

That night the couple sleep with a pillow between them, [84] and under the groom’s pillow is a head-axe.  Early in the morning, the girl’s mother or some other elderly female of her family awakens them, and leads the way to the village spring.  Arriving there, she pours water in a coconut shell, which contains a cigar from which the couple have drawn smoke; [85] she adds leaves of bamboo and agiwas, and washes their faces with the liquid, “to show that they now have all in common; that the tobacco may keep them and their children from becoming insane; that the agiwas will keep them in health; and the bamboo will make them strong and insure many children, the same as it has many sprouts.”  On their way home, the boy cuts a dangla shrub (Vitex negundo L.) with his head-axe, and later attaches it to the door of their home, “so that they may have many children.”

Throughout that day the doors and windows are kept tightly closed; for should the young people see birds or chickens having intercourse, they are apt to become insane, and their first born have sore or crossed eyes.

The next morning is known as sipsipot ("the watching").  Accompanied by the girl’s parents, the couple goes to the father’s fields.  On the way they carefully observe any signs which animals, birds, or nature, may give them.  When they reach the fields, the boy shows his respect for his elders by cutting the grass along the borders with his head-axe.  This service also counteracts any bad sign which they may have received that morning.  He next takes a little of the soil on his axe, and both he and his bride taste of it, “so that the ground will yield good harvests” for them, and they will become rich. [86]