A RACE FOR A WIFE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3037, 2 January 1892, Page 1 (Supplement)

A RACE FOR A WIFE.

No crime in Lipland, saving only that of murder, is punished nviro severely or summarily, than is tho imrryir.g of a young woman against, the express wii-hes of her parents. A girl is not forced to look a suitor in the eyp.s :ind tell him she does not lovo him, nor ij »he. forced t;>give her roiisous for refusing. Nothing of the kind. Tho parents of iho damsel, when her hand has been asked in marriage by one whom they arc willing to receive, fay to one another, "If our daughter will bavo this man, we will accept him for a son. Let the ease be decided, even as it was decided when Lul.'ti of the glen turned in her iiijht and bowed her head to Lapp-Alteu."

Accordingly, information is given to the damsel that a suiter has applied for her hand, Perhaps she knows the young man, while it m-iy be she has never been him. However, on a day tippoiutcd, tlugirl and hoi , parouts, with their f ciuuds, eoinc together, and sit at meat, tho suitor and the object of his desiixs being , placed opposite to one another. s,o that they c.lij converse freely, and eaoh view tlie others face. When the fenst is eoufiluded the company repair to an open space, whore tho " race for a wife " is to be run.

The di-tiinco marked oif is generally about a quarter of ii mile, ami the girl is placed about a third of tho whole distance in iidvance of the starting-point; so that if she bo at nil lleot of'foot, and so desires, she cau easily avoid the suitor ; for, if ho does not overtake her before *he reaches tho end of tho race nho is fret, and he may never trouble her agiiin. In this wny, if \vill bo ston, a modest maiden is spared all perplexity or possible shame of refusal. If she does not wish the young man for a husbaud, sho lias but, to keep her back to him and maKo for tho goal, which she is sure to reach first if she chooses. While on the other hand, if tho suitor has pleased her, aijd sho will have him, sho has only to lag in her flight and aliow him to overtake her ; and if sho be particularly 6truck—if she would signify to the lover that his love in returned—she can run a short distance, then stop and turn and invite him with open arms.