Sharp County record., 1888-04-05
CURIOUS CUSTOMS.
How a South African Bride Is
Wooed and Won.
Weddings Among the Barralong Kafhrs-
A Present for a MOther-In- Law
A Bullock to Be Killed by
the Groom.


The Barralongs of South Africa are
q tribe which probably does not rank
exceedingly high in the scale of crea-
ton. Nobody has ever heard OF a
Barraling Royal Academy, with pres
ident and associates, or Barralong
Board of Works, with fortnightly
scandals; nor has the race yet pro-
duced a Barralong Shaksepeare-or
Bacon. The shockingly backward con-
dition of this interesting Kaffir people
is further evidenced in the fact that
they are declared to be destitute Of any
religion whatever. 1t is, therefore,
quite useless to look for q Barralong
archbishop; indeed, if an English
bishop were imprudent enough to leave
our shores and go among this simple
minded folk they would probably be-
gin to look for him-with assegais.
1t is q curious circumstance, and
shows the wide range of subjects which
the legal profession in England has to
deal with, that the manners and GUS
toms of the Barralong KafIrs are now
exercising the ingenuity and learn
ing Of the Chancery Division.
Mr.. Justice Stirling has been
trying to discover what is consid-
cred to be proper and legitimate
marriage ceremony amongth South
Africans, and it need hardly be said
that in doing so the English court has
not been Influenced by any merely
academical desire to study a little
known tract of sociology. There are,
indeed, very substantial reasons why
the whole question of how these un-
civilized denizens of the bush live,
move and have their being should be
thrashed out by learned counsel.
Most people will remember the
name of Bcchuanaland, if nothing
more, for it was there that Sir. Charles
Warren conducted one of the most
brilliantly successful and entirely
bloodless xpeditions that have ever
started under the English flag. 1t
may also not have passed out of gen.
eral recollection how one of the Incl
dents which aroused the deepest in
dignation in England in regard to
Boer onslaughts on that country was
the clnel murder of young man
named Bethell who had been the head
of police force in that district The
particular tribe of Bechuanas among
whom Mr. Bethel settled was this
very race Of Barralongs, and, curious
ly enough, some time before his death
he seems to have welded Kaffi r. girl
to the accompaniment of certain
rites demanded by Barralong
public opinion. For example,
it is considered 'de rigueur"
by Barralong mothers of marriagea-
bic daughters that any young man
suing for the hand Of one of "the
girls is bound to kill an OK and make
a present of its head to his future
mother-in-law. The ox's head buys
the maiden, in fact. The question be-
fore the Chancery Division was partly
as to whether Mr.. Bethel, before he
took TO himself this dusky beauty,
went through the various social ago.
nics demanded by Bechuana etiquette.
Did he kill his OK in correct style? If
so, did he make this rather ghastly
prcnuptal offering to his revered
mother-in-law, and did she. in trans
port of beefy happiness, exclaim:
Bless you, my children" and con-
sontto their union? These are strange
inquiries to be proceeding in a grave
court of British justice; yet on their
crrrect solution depend good deal of
property and much beside.
1t would be decidedly interesting to
know how many English young men
wettld dare to take the plunge into
marimony if they first of all had to
clutch the pole axe and administer the
death blow to vicious bullock just
landed at Deptford and fresh from
Transatlantic prairies The proba-
biiity is that in that case we should
have much fewer engagements
than at present. OF else a start
ling increase in breach-of-promise ac-
tions. Imagine the verger of St
Georges. Hanover Square. standing
outside that sacred edifice just before
fashionable wedding was to take
place, and vainly endeavoring to hold
sliyelY OK on which the frightened