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then went into the hut, and the males thrust long sticks through the fence. Simultaneously the former came out of the hovel, and each one caught hold of a stick, the owner of which became her husband.

At Mocha, in the East Indies, marriage brokers were employed. A man selected a wife with their aid, and agreed on a price for her, and the term for which she was to be engaged. They then appeared before the Cadi, who entered their contract in a book. This temporary marriage was valid until the expiration of the term fixed, when it was at an end.

In the island of Celebes men were allowed to marry as many wives as they could keep. The bridegroom was obliged to obtain the consent of the parents on both sides to the marriage, and also to make a present to the bride's father. Early in the present century it was a custom for the bride's party to hold some impediment before the doorway to debar the entrance of the husband, until he made a gift of betel-nut. This custom is similar to one in use in England, called chaining. At supper the bride and bridegroom ate out of the same dish for the first time. The couple remained in their bedchamber for seven days after their marriage, and water was carried to them night and morning to enable them to purify themselves.

At Amboina, in the last century, the marriage ceremony principally consisted in throwing backwards and forwards an egg into the wide sleeves of the bride and bridegroom's outer garments. For several days after the wedding the couple were obliged to sit together in their bedchamber, looking solemnly upon the ground, before they consummated the marriage.

In one part of the East Indian Archipelago, reside a tribe of head-hunters, who are not allowed to marry until they have made room for their probable progeny by cut

ting off the heads of some of those among whom they are living.

In Java the women are generally married at the age of puberty, and the men two or three years after that period. The courtship is conducted by the parents, and the couple are not allowed to interfere therein in any way. The father of the young man, when he has found a suitable lady for his son, waits upon her father and makes a proposal; whereupon a negotiation, which is chiefly conducted by women, commences. If the treaty be successful, it terminates in a betrothal, which always precedes a regular marriage. A trifling gift, generally a ring or a piece of cloth, is presented by the bridegroom to the bride as an earnest of their engagement, and this ceremony is called the binding.

Javanese marriages are of three kinds. The first being when the rank of the parties is equal, or when that of the husband is superior to that of the bride. The second when the rank of the wife is much superior to that of the bridegroom. And the third is a kind of imperfect marriage, or concubinage, which legitimatizes the offspring, but does not give them all the rights of wedlock. In the two first kinds of marriage, there is no difference in the ceremony itself, and in the last there is no ceremony at all, the marriage consisting in the parties living together. Men are allowed to have several wives, and as many concubines as they may please to keep.

After betrothal, a Javanese girl burns all her toys and childish trinkets, to evince her determination to become a housewife; and her friends congratulate her on her intended change, and make her presents to recompense her for her loss. Another portion of the ceremony consists in the bridegroom's friends visiting at the house of the bride's father, and presenting fruit and other eatables, the object being to give publicity to the intended nuptials. In common

marriages, a price is always paid by the husband for his wife. The parties are married, and take vows according to the Mussulman ritual. Certain native ceremonies follow, and they all take place at the house of the bride's father. Part of the forms is a meeting of all the friends, guests, and servants, in front of the houses of the contracting couple, where guns are fired. Another ceremony is a grand public procession, to conduct the bridegroom to his bride's house. In this cavalcade are men with spears, fastened to poles, which others strike; drummers; sham soldiers, decked with peacocks' feathers and horses' tails, and armed with shields, darts and swords, who dance and combat; women carrying ornaments and household stuffs, as presents for the bride; and all the guests.

When the procession arrives at the house, the bride receives her husband, who conducts her to a seat of honor, where, as a token of sharing his future fortunes with her, he presents her with a little rice, and they eat from the same vessel. In some parts of Java, the bride, as a sign of her subjection, kneels and washes the feet of the bridegroom when he enters the house; and in other places, for the same reason, he treads upon a raw egg, and she wipes his foot. The wedding-feast is given at the bridegroom's house, to which place the couple are attended by all their friends in procession.

Among the people inhabiting the Teng'gar mountains, in Java, when a marriage has been agreed upon, the bride and bridegroom are united before the Dukun, or priest, at the bride's house. They bow with respect towards the south, then towards the fire-place, then towards the earth, and lastly towards the sky. While they are still bending in submission, the priest recites a prayer, and the bride washes the feet of the bridegroom. Their friends then make them presents, and the couple offer the betel leaf. At the feast

which follows, the priest again repeats prayers. The marriage is not consummated until the fifth day after the wedding. In some parts of Java, when a man marries a second or third wife, he is obliged to hold an ignited brand in his hand, on which the bride pours water from a vase to extinguish it.

Among the Maroons, living in the mountains of Jamaica, when a girl was of an age fitted for a wife, her parents killed a hog and made a feast, to which their neighbors. were invited, and which was intended to give an opportunity to the young men to make an offer for the maiden. The marriage was attended with no religious or judicial ceremonies, the consent of the woman to live with the man being all that was required. That being obtained, gifts of clothes and trinkets were made to the bride, and frequently the bridegroom received presents of hogs, fowls, and other things from the relations of the bride, to whom, however, they were to be returned in case of a separation. Men were allowed to have as many wives as they could keep, but few had more than two.

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CHAPTER V.

African Marriages.-At Sierra Leone.-Affiancing Custom.-Moorish Marriages in Africa. Infant Betrothal.-Cloth Symbol.-Angola Marriages.-Hottentot Marriages.-Loango and Mpongme Marriages.-Karague Marriages. -Uganda Marriages. - - Congo Marriages. Experimental Marriages.Marriages in Canary Islands.-Fattening for Marriage.-Abyssinian Marriages.-Guinea Marriages.-Ethiopian Marriages.-Mexican Marriages.Divination.- Fire Symbols.- Peruvian Marriages.- Carib Marriages.— Florida Marriages.-Cuba Marriages.-Brazilian Marriages.-Child Wife. -Stone-piercing.-Guiana Marriages.-Earning a Wife.-South American Marriages.- Wives on Trial.-Patagonian Marriages.-North American Marriages.-Tarrying.- Marriage en Chemise.-Ring Signs.-Australian Marriages.-Wife-capture.-The Trial of Spears.

AWRITER in the seventeenth century says that the ne

groes of Africa, particularly those of Sierra Leone, had a house devoted to the instruction of their daughters, who remained therein for one year under the care of some virtuous and learned old man. At the end of the year these girls were dressed in their best, and publicly assembled in the presence of their parents and of the marriageable young men of their town or village, before whom they danced. The men chose partners out of the number, whom, after giving presents to the fathers and also to the instructor, they led home and married.

Park relates, in his "Travels " into the interior of Africa, that one affiancing custom there was for a man to seat himself upon a mat by the threshold of his door, and for the woman to bring water in a calabash. Kneeling down before him, she asked him to wash his hands; and when he

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