Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1898-08-26
A KAFFIR WEDDING.
PRELlMlNARIEs AND CEREMONIES At
TENDANT THEREON.

Brides Valued in Cows-Her Trosseau Com
sists Solely of Hair Dye Wedding FESTIVE
tiles Are Akin to Donneybrook Fair
Gayeties.
Marriage among natives of South
Africa is very much a matter of
pounds, shillings and pence, shorn Of
the glamor of romance by the fact
that the bride is estimated at so many
COWS and oxen by her callous and prac-
tical father. The Kafiir patriarch re-
ioices in a multiplicity Of daughters,
for they are truly the props of his old
age, and each dusky damsel taken off
his hands by an ardent sutton means
an increase to his herds, calculated
with mathematical precision, accord
ing to the rank Of the brides father.
For instance, the hereditary chief in
charge of a tribe when parting with
his daughter need set no bounds to his
bovine ambition, and the legend,
Brides are cheap to-day is meaning
less to one of such exalted rank. A
mere appointed chief in charge of
tribe dares not demand more than
twenty head of cattle for his daughter.
but ten head is the average payment
made. The ordinary Kaflr has three
or four wives. and when he has been
in service with his white master sufi-
GENTLY long to acquire the amount
necessary to obtain the desire of his
heart, he returns to his ancestral halls
and, after a brief courtship makes his
selection in the "Kaflir market and
propOses-to the father. No presents
are made to the bridemaids, for there
are none present; but that much-ma-
ligned individual, the mother-in-law, is
duly recognized by the heather, for she
invariably receives a COW from her SON
in-law-elect.
Kaffir modistes receive few commits
sions from natives for trousseaus. The
bride dyes her hair for the wedding
morn, with red clay, the symbol and
badge of every married woman. The
ceremony is usually very picturesque,
and in that land of sunshine takes in
the open. The officiating clergy con-
sist of a terribly pompous individual
called the official witness who pub
licly asks the woman in the presence
of her assembled friends and relatives
whether she gives her full and free
consent to the union, and in the event
Of repentance at the last moment he
instantly stops the marriage rites. The
wedding breakfast is both primitive
and satisfying. 1t consists of cattle
or goats slaughtered for the occasion,
and large calabashes of "utywala," or
Kafir beer, an intoXicant brewed from
a grain resembling millet. On the
coast a vile concoction of treacle and
water, called "isityimiyana," is in
great request
When the marriage is announced, it
produces a Gutter Tin the neighboring
kraals. and the braves of any tribe not
on speaking terms with the brides pco-
pie make it the occasion for a hostile
demonstration, known subsequently to
the avenging law as a faction fight.
The unlimited generally approach the
scene of the ceremony armed with as
segais and knobkerries, and when the
ceremony is at a most interesting point
challenge the ahle-bodied guests to
come forth to skirmish Several Of
the latter who have drunk of the "uty-
wala," not wisely but too well sally
forth to avenge the insult, and mid
rival jecrs and taunts do their level
best to break each others heads.
Blows are given and taken, but the
aversge Kafiirs head is as cast steel.
The women, too, are not behindhand,
and urge on the combatants with
strong hints as to their deseneracy
from the days of yore, and in one case,
when several of their injured foes tried
to rise, felled them to the ground with
fiat stones. When the intruders are
driven off. the wounded are brought
into the kraal, and the whole assem-
blage sits far into the night, drinking
beer and Teasing on red flesh" till the
rude awakening in the morning. when
the medicine man or herbalist is called
In to bind the broken limbs and minis
ter to the black slaves of overindulg-
ence.-African Review