Marriage in Many Lands.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 414, 26 October 1889, Page 6

Marriage in Many Lands.

It is little to b« wondered at, taking the world over, wo find many peculiar methods of performing the most important ceremony in a human being's lifetime, and many quaint customs connected with it. Although marriages are much the same amorg all civilised people, yet where savages are concerned they show a wide difference; from the simple rite in übo in some races, which consists merely of the man and woman drinking from one cup, or making one anotlu r some small present, to the eluborate ceremonies, often stretching over many weeks, which are in vogue elsewhere. When a native Australian arrives at the conclusion that nature did not intend him to lead a life of singlo blessedness, all he does is to pi6k out his heaviest club and lay wait behind a bush for the object of his affections. When she appears, he leaps from his ambush, hits her on the head sufficiently hard to render her insonsible, bears her awuy across his shoulders and on her coming to herself again she is considered to be the lawful wife of the man who has honoured her with such « forcible proof of his admiration. With the ladies of Guinea every year is a Leap Year, the privileges of which they assume as a matter of course. Any maiden who desires to marry a man takes an oppoitunity of ollering him something to drink. If he refuses this offer, it is a sign that he will have nothing to do with her ; but if, on the otiier hand, he accepts it, tho maii'iage id held to be concluded, in Japan, the principal, and apparently the binding, part of the marriage ceremony consists in the bride and bridegroom drinking nine small cups of saki (a drink made from rice) together. A Japanese lady who ia going to be married has, before she leaves her father's house, to blacken her teeth ; and ?oon after the wedding ceremony has been per for mod, she is obliged to either pluck out her or shave off her eyebrows. These two acts are supposed to be indicative of her fidelity to her husband. An immense amount of feasting is connected with a Japanese wedding. For about a week the bridegroom has to keep open house, and entertain an indefinite number of the relatives of his wife and himself. The custom, of course, imposes a severe tax upon persons of moderate means ; so much so that a man is often in straitened circumstaucoe for years after his wedding.