DIFFERENT KINDS OF MARRIAGE. 73 ' and her relations are liable to pay back the twelve dollars; but it is seldom demanded. This mode, 'doubtless the most conformable to our ideas of con'jugal right and felicity, is that which the chiefs of the 'Rejang country have formally consented to establish throughout their jurisdiction, and to their orders the 'influence of the Malayan priests will contribute to 'give efficacy.' In the Jugur marriage the woman became the property of the man. The Hassaniyeh Arabs have a very curious form of marriage, which may be called three-quarter marriage; that is to say, the woman is legally married for three days out of four, remaining perfectly free for the fourth. In Ceylon there were two kinds of marriage-the Deega marriage, and the Beena marriage. In the former the woman went to her husband's hut; in the latter the man transferred himself to that of the woman. Moreover, according to Davy, marriages in Ceylon were provisional for the first fortnight, at the expiration of which they were either annulled or confirmed.1 In Japan, among the higher classes, it is said that the eldest son brings his bride to the paternal home; but, on the other hand, the eldest daughter does the same, and retains her name, which is assumed by the bridegroom. Thus the wife of an eldest son joins her husband's family; but, on the other hand, the husband of an eldest daughter enters into that of his wife. 1 Davy's Ceylon, p. 286. Hence the eldest son of one family cannot marry the eldest daughter of another. As regards the younger children, if the husband's father provides the house, the wife takes her husband's name; while if the bride's father does so, the bridegroom assumes that of his wife.1 เ 2 Among the Reddies of Southern India a very singular custom prevails:-'A young woman of sixteen or twenty years of age may be married to a boy of five or six years! She, however, lives with some other 'adult male-perhaps a maternal uncle or cousin—but 'is not allowed to form a connection with the father's ' relatives; occasionally it may be the boy-husband's 'father himself that is, the woman's father-in-law! 'Should there be children from these liaisons, they are 'fathered on the boy-husband. When the boy grows up the wife is either old or past child-bearing, when 'he in his turn takes up with some other "boy's" wife in a manner precisely similar to his own, and pro'creates children for the boy-husband.' เ Polyandry, or the marriage of one woman to several men at once, is more common than is generally sup posed, though much less so than polygamy, which is almost universally permitted among the lower races of men. One reason though I do not say the only onefor this, is obvious when pointed out. Long after our children are weaned, milk remains an important and necessary part of their food. We supply this want with cow's milk; but among people who have no domesti 1 Morgan's System of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family, p. 428. 2 Shortt, Trans. Ethn. Soc., New Series, vol. vii. p. 194. SEPARATION OF HUSBAND AND WIFE. 75 cated animals this cannot, of course, be done, and consequently the children are not weaned until they are two, three, or even four years old, during all which period the husband and wife generally remain apart. Thus, in Feejee the relatives of a woman take it as a public 'insult if any child should be born before the customary 'three or four years have elapsed, and they consider 'themselves in duty bound to avenge it in an equally 'public manner.' 1 เ It seems to us natural and proper that husband and wife should enjoy as much as possible the society of one another; but, among the Turkomans, according to Fraser, for six months or a year, or even sometimes two years, after a marriage, the husband was only allowed to visit his wife by stealth. After the wedding,' says Burnes, the bride returns to the house of her parents, 'and passes a year in preparing the carpets and clothes, 'which are necessary for a Toorkmun tent; and on the 'anniversary of her elopement, she is finally transferred 'to the arms and house of her gallant lover.' 2 Klemm states that the same is the case among the Circassians until the first child is born. Among the Feejeeans, husbands and wives do not usually spend the night together, except as it were by stealth. It is quite contrary to Feejeean ideas of delicacy that they should sleep under the same roof. day with his family, but absents A man spends his himself on the approach of night. In Chittagong (India), although, 191. 1 Seemann, A Mission to Fiji, p. 2 Burnes' Travels in Bokhara, vol. ii. p. 56. See also Vambery's Travels in Central Asia, p. 323. 76 SEPARATION OF HUSBAND AND WIFE. according to European ideas, the standard of morality among the Kyoungtha is low,' yet husband and wife are on no account permitted to sleep together until seven days after marriage.1 Burckhardt2 states, that in Arabia, after the wedding, if it can be called so, the bride returns to her mother's tent, but again runs away in the evening, and repeats these flights several times, till she finally returns to her tent. She does not go to live in her husband's tent for some months, perhaps not even till a full year, from the wedding-day. Among the Votyaks, some weeks after the wedding the bride returns to her father's tent, and lives there for two or three months, sometimes even for a year, during which time she dresses and behaves like a girl, and after which she returns to her husband; making, however, even on the second occasion, a show of resistance.3 Lafitau informs us that among the North American Indians the husband only visits the wife as it were by stealth:-'ils n'osent aller dans les cabanes particulières, 'où habitent leurs épouses, que durant l'obscurité de la nuit. . . . ce serait une action extraordinaire de s'y présenter le jour.'4 In Futa, one of the West African kingdoms, it is said that no husband is allowed to see his wife's face until he has been three years married. In Sparta, and in Crete, according to Xenophon and Strabo, married people were for some time after the Lewin's Hill Tracts of Chitta gong, p. 51. 2 Burckhardt's Notes, vol. ii. p. 269, quoted in M'Lennan's Primitive Marriage, p. 302. 3 Müller's Des. de toutes les Nations de l'Emp. de Russe, Part II., p. 71. Loc. cit., vol. i. p. 576. ABSENCE OF MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 77 wedding only allowed to see one another as it were clandestinely; and a similar custom is said to have existed among the Lycians. So far as I am aware, no satisfactory explanation of this custom has yet been given. I shall, however, presently venture to suggest one. There are many cases in which savages have no such thing as any ceremony of marriage. 'I have said nothing,' say's Metz, about the marriage ceremonies of the Bada'gas (Hindostan), because they can scarcely be said to 'have any.' The Kurumbas, another tribe of the Neilgherry Hills, 'have no marriage ceremony.'1 According to Colonel Dalton,2 the Keriahs of Central India 'have no word for marriage in their own language, and the only ceremony used appears to be little more than a sort of 'public recognition of the fact.' It is It is very singular, he adds elsewhere,' that of the many intelligent observers 'who have visited and written on Butan, not one has 'been able to tell us that they have such an institution as a marriage ceremony.' The tie between man and woman seems to be very slight, and to be a mere matter of servitude. 'From my own observation,' he continues, 'I believe the Butias to be utterly indifferent on the subject of the honour of their women.' So also the Spanish missionaries found no word for marriage, nor any marriage ceremony, among the Indians of California.4 Farther north, among the Kutchin Indians, 'there is no ceremony observed at marriage or birth.' 5 |