Page:A pilgrimage to my motherland.djvu/67

58 wives, children and slaves. From this circumstance men are frequently reported wealthy, and yet in emergencies can not raise ten bags of cowries, (about $40.) Wives are commonly engaged at an early age, frequently before six or seven years old. This is done by paying to the parents a stipulated sum, and occasionally making presents both to them and the betrothed. When the engagement is concluded, a brace-let is placed about the wrist to signify the new relation she sustains. She remains with the parents until of proper age to be taken home to her husband. If she comes with honor, two or three days after, adorned with costly cloths and jewels, and with music, she marches with a large company of maidens through the city, to receive the congratulations and presents of her friends, which are generally on such an occasion very liberally bestowed. Otherwise, the parents are made to refund the whole amount advanced in engaging her, and the guilty partner to her infidelity, if known, is prosecuted for adultery. If the intended husband is a youth, never before married, his mother, or less frequently his father, makes the engagement for him; and the parties are respectively kept in ignorance of each other until they are both of suitable age to live together.

A less troublesome way of procuring a wife, with