The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1885-02-27
MARRIAGE CUSTOMS.
Many Ancient Ways and Means
of Securing Wives.
Singularities of Wedding Customs-The
Marriage Rites of To-Day the
Relies of Times When They
Were Serious Realities.

The institution of marriage is one of
so much consequence. to the human race
that it is not remarkable to find a great
many diverse customs and usages in
regard to it. A custom is seldom n ore
than usage in part cular case applied
to all cases, and customs which often
seem to have neither sense nor meaning
arc not infrequently the relics of former
institutions which, in their time, were
very significant. Though nowadays
everybody does not get married, yet
everybody still maintains lively inter-
est in the custom and everything per-
tanning to it, for the simple reason that
marriage is a sort of grand climacteric
in the social life of man or woman,
the one time when the most insignificant
m9a ard the homeliest woman become
of interest to all their neighbors. I'm
less this fact be remembered, it will be
difficult 10 account for the lively con-
Germ felt by everybody in q wedding.
Let any woman be married, no matter
how humble her position, and all the
other women to whose ears the news
happens to come will hustle about in
gleeful anticipation, while the men will
look on with an interest greater than
they care to show. Let servant-girl
conclude to enter the state of matri-
mony, and her mistress and the Young
ladies OF the house will be as much
tluStered by the event as she herself,
while the presence of bridal party on
q railroad train viii excite all hands,
from the engineer, who will set the loco
motive whistle going, to the brakeman,
who will inform passengers of the pres
ence OF the newly welded, and will
point them out for the edifcation of the
general public. In consequence of this
universal opening of eyes and raising OF
hands whenever the subject comes up
for consideration, a survey of some OF
the more prominent and pronounced
marriage customs of the world may not
prove either uninteresting or unproft-
able.
SAVAGE MARRIAGE.
Few things, according to Sir John
Lubbock, give q closer insight into the
real condition of savaoes than their
ideas on the subject of love and mar
riage, and in fact the best estimate that
can be made of the civilization of a
nation is that based on its opinion OF
the marriage relation. Many races OF
sayages have no such thing as mar
riagc institution, know not what is
meant by the word love, and the ALI
ances they contract are founded on
some other basis than that of sentiment.
In many of the languages of the lower
tribes of savages there is no word cor
responding to love or affection, so that,
for instance, when the Bible was trans
lated into the Algonquin dialect, the
lack had to be supplied by word in
vented for the purpose. Travellers uni
Versally assert that among the Hotten-
tots there is no conception of love, and
a marriage is rs much matter of con
venience as the formation of a hunting
party. Cailie says that among the
Mandingoes of Central Africa marriage
Is merely form of regulated slavery.
Husband and wife never talk or laugh
together. | asked one why he did not
sometimes make merry with his wives,
and was told that if he did he would
not be able to manage them, for they
would laugh at him when he told them
to do anything" Levin says that in
India the hill tribes. of Chittagong re-
gard marriage merely as the best means
of getting their dinner cooked, while in
Australia, according to Eyre, wives are
valued only as slaves and are treated
with the utmost brutality, are beaten
md speared in the limbs upon the
smallest provocation. Few women
will be found to be free from frightful
sears upon the head, the body or the
limbs, and ! have seen a young woman
who, from her appearance, seemed to
be almost riddled with these wounds. !"
A sU1IATRAN MARRIAGE.
Before the native institutions of
Sumatra were suppressed by the con-
quering whites, there were three kinds
of marriage in use among the. natives,
one in which the man purchased the
woman, one in which the woman pur-
chased the man, and one in which the
transaction was on terms of equality.
The first is easily understood and no
way novel; the second is somewhat
curious. The father of q young woman
of high rank looks around for a proper
husband for his daughter, and general
~ takes him from an inferior family.
The young man relatives pay stip-
ulated sum for the honor he is about to
receive, feast is made, and from that
time 1.-THE good and bad of him" a
peculiar expression for the better or
worse. is vested in his new owners. He
is between a son and a servant; if he
does mischief his wife's family pay the