In India girls are married to flowers, trees, arrows, swords, and so on.

A bachelor is married to a ring or a plant before wedding a widow, and the first ceremony is considered as his true marriage.

The Saligram, or ammonite stone, is held to represent the god Vishnu, perhaps because it was thought to be a thunderbolt and to have fallen from heaven.

Its marriage is celebrated with the _tulsi_ or basil-plant, which is considered the consort of Vishnu.

Trees are held to be animate and possessed by spirits, and before a man climbs a tree he begs its pardon for the injury he is about to inflict on it.