Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/356

320 the matter is quashed, however ardently the young woman may desire the union.

There is one custom which is very peculiar, showing the power of the paternal uncle. If the father and mother of a maiden desire and decide to give their daughter in marriage to a suitor whom they may approve, any one of the brothers of the father may decide against and countermand the marriage. If the young man's previous life has been marked by loose habits and unsatisfactory conduct, the girl's father talks very plainly to him about it all, and the young man acknowledges his sins, professes humility and repentance, and makes the father a present of a cow or a goat, as a practical expression of regret, and is forgiven. When permission of espousal has been granted, there comes a very important question for consideration, namely the price to be paid for the wife. The father, in harmony with African habits of bargain-making, generally asks a great deal more than he expects to get. He names the price, twenty or thirty head of cattle as the case may be, and the young man rejoins, "You must let me have her for less; reduce the demand." When an agreement at last is mutually made, the matter is so far concluded. During the period of negotiation, the lover brings small presents to the maiden's father, sometimes a couple of cakes of tobacco or a little honey, but he never pays a visit empty-handed. After a time, the young man naturally wishes to hasten the final settlement, and says to the father: "Now take your property," offering the cattle as agreed upon for the dowry, "and let me have my wife." Galla etiquette, however, demands more delay, and again and again the naming of the day is deferred, but when at last this is to be fixed, the father calls his friends together to be present at the event. No provision in the way of feasting or refreshment is made by him, except that he brews a quantity of marriage wine made from a kind of wild honey called Tunali, and this is freely drunk. The lover brings with him several of his acquaintances, but the maiden is not present. The father makes a speech, in which he states the object of the gathering, saying, "I give my daughter to this man, and he may now fix what day he likes for the wedding."