ZULU GIRLS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2312, 14 August 1880, Page 3

ZULU GIRLS.

The Zulu Girls live at home, and work for their fathers only. They may not marry until the king gives them leave ; when he assents they may marry any man they like. But he does not assent until they have reached a certain age. They arc all of them enrolled into regiments ; so arc the boys. Sometimes the king gives permission to a regiment of young men and to a regiment of girls at the same time to get married ; but it docs not follow that the young men all secure wives, as the girls may prefer men of other (previously permitted) regiments, or the young men may not possess arqv cattle ; in which ease, of course, no father will give them their girls. The mother-in-law moves in a very circumscribed circle. She is not permitted to make any criticisms of household affairs, nor even to look on the face of her son-in-law. When he appears she plays a kind of hide-and-seek, and never feels free while he is in the house. An American contemporary marvels at this fact in the following amusing strain : —How different are our modern ways! Now if anybody plays hide-and-seek in our country it is the son-in-iow, and if there is any one on the footstool whom he fears it is the dignified and autocratic mother of his beloved wife. An impartial observer of affairs sometimes- wonders whether the old custom is not better than the new, and whether we have really made any progress in this particular matter.