The Wichita daily eagle., 1894-11-24

Tne attir,s are conducted In much
the same manner, except that their
work consists Of bodybuilding, carpen-
try. fishing and other male OCCUPATIONS
For eight months of the year, however.
their ranks are very thin and feeble. for
two-thirds of the male population are
absent during that time, and those who
remain are mostly persons too old. too
young, or in some other way united
for the perilous and rugged labor Of
the sea. But even when all are at
home the females are largely prepon-
derant. outnumbering the males by
fully third.
One duty Of the attiri is 10 turn ont at
the alarm of fire. This alarm is sounded
from 4 conch shell with bit broken off
at the apex. Three shrill blasts is the
fire signal, and. judging from the sin
gle one given US as sample, the man
must be exceedingly deaf or very far
from town whose ears fail to catch
the sound.
The relations of the sexes in MinicoY
arc peculiar. 10 say the cast In the
6rst place they ase homogeneous, which.
for people of their religion. is strange
to begin with. Then the woman is at
the head of the house and not the
man; indeed that individual counts
for very little. The house belongs TO
the woman and all that is in it. Prac-
tically the men belong to the women,
and SO satisfactory proves the resul.
OF the arrangement that he is quite con-
tent in his secondary position The
product of his labor goes into the fam
lily stock and increases the family sub
stance.
But our most startling discovery was
that when a man marries, instead Of
giving his name to his wife. as with US,
he takes her name and drops his own
entirely. Thus, il benjamin Smith
marries Angelina Brown. he becomes
benjamin Brown, or, If we nay unseX
him for a moment for illustration, Mrs.
Angelina Brown, and all his property
passes into the Brown family. So that
family's hopes for the perpetuation
of their name and fortunes are CEN
tered in the daughters, not the sons,
and the dowry business is also quite
reversed. Here is hint for woInen's
Fighters which, ii they can carry out,
will emancipate them at n single blow.
The great marrying month of the
Minicovites is May, shortly after the
return of the fleet with their candies of
rice, their silks and their silver orna-
ments, which they bring from Bengal
-,
wives already made. or wedding gifts
for brides to be. In 1892 there were
fifty-three marriages on the island,
thirty-seven of which took place in the
golden month of May. No marriage is
performed without the girls consent.
To make sure that this is voluntarily
given the kazi (priesO sends two
sentiments OF the girl, so that she shall
not be forced into hateful alliance.
The Minicovite women having a
firm hand on the domestic strings, use
every effort to keep the family to-
gether. This they believe to be the
foundation stone of true economy. You
may see grandmothers, mothers and
daughters with their three generations
of male counterparts all living peace
fully together under the same roof and
eating from the common dish.
Should the members of the Brown
household grow ra her too numerous for
their quarters, the males of the Brown
family are set to work to put up new
house near by, in which the eldest
daughter. say the married Angelina, is
duly installed and the new branch be-
being called the Brown-Smiths-
In the afternoon we got consider
able amount of amusement in watch