Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/359

 Collectanea. 323

no one daring to address her by any other name than the one chosen by her husband.

When a Galla woman marries, she leaves her own tribe and enters that of her husband. Should she become incapable through illness of remaining with her husband, she is sent, not to her own relatives, but to the brothers of her husband.

There are two tribes which are recognised by the Southern Gallas as the stems of the Galla race : one is called Arusi and the other Baretu. It is a fixed law of marriage amongst these Gallas that a man must be of one of these two stems, and the woman of the other. A man who is an Arusi must marry a woman of the Baretu division. Another law is that a man cannot marry in his own family line, however remote. The rule against con- sanguinity is very strict and absolutely observed, except by the clan Karara. The Galla wife seems to be much respected by her husband, and in social position is superior to the women of some of the tribes of East Africa.

Polygamy is allowed, and a man may take as many wives as he likes, or rather, as he can afford to buy. Each wife has a separate dwelling, and the huts are ranged in a line, each door facing the east. The husband has no separate dwelling of his own, but lives in those of his wives. Every evening each wife spreads a cowhide before the door of her hut for her husband to rest upon. This is an invitation daily given by the occupant of each dwelling. When the husband pays his evening visit to the cattle-fold, each wife takes a staff to him, called a tobo, which was cut for her by her husband and given to her on the day of the wedding. The wife who reaches the husband first, hands the tobo to him and takes his spear from his hand. The other wives return their tobos to their huts. On the husband's return from a journey, however short, the wives bring vessels of water and some food to him wherever he may chance to sit down. The wife first married takes precedence of the others. If, after marriage, the wife is treated unkindly, her brother can go and bring her back to her family. He must not, however, enter the hut or even the settle- ment if the husband forbid it, but must wait until his sister leaves the house for the purpose of drawing water, when he