The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-02-21
THEY BELIEVE IN MARRYING.
Do Not Count For Much
Among Savages.
(Chicago Chronicle.)

Savage man is, almost everywhere,
& marrying man. often he is a much
married man. He abhors the single
state. Old maids and old bachelors are
rare in all savage and barbarous COM
munities The rule is to marry early
and sometimes also to marry often.
Here is one point of difference, and
notable one. between unCiviliZed and
civilized societies. In the second vol
ume of his History of European Nor
ais Mr.. Iecky points out that in no
highly civilized society Is marriage gen
eral on the first developments Of the
rassions." and that the continued ten
dencv of increasing knowledge is 10
render such marriages more rare The
opposite of this general rule, which IS
characteristic of most civilized peo-
pies. finds expression in cases where
children are pledged in marriage even
before they are born; among the Tala-
manca Indians, where "a bride is gen
orally from 10 TO II years old, among
certain other Central American tribes,
where the parents try TO get wife
for their son when he is 9 TO 10 years
old. among the Guianas, where, as
Azara saws, ''the girls who marry
latest marry at the age Of g.; among
most of the Australian tribes, where
nearly all the girls are betrothed at
an extremely early age; among the
Santals, where a lad marries las
rule about the age of is or l., and a
girl AZ that Of l., and among the
Kandhs. where "a boy marries when
he reaches his tenth or twelfth year.
his wife being usually about four years
older
So strong is the sentiment in favor
OF marriage among unciyilized races
that a person who does not marry IS
looked upon almost as an unnatural
being, or az any rate is disdained. It
is or was a matter OF universal belief
I'm Fiji that he who died without hay
ing been married was stopped on the
read TO paradise by the god Nanggan-
angga and smashed to atoms" The
Santals regard the obstinate bachelor
as little better than a thief, and not
at all better than q witch, and both
sexes treat him with supreme con-
tempt In KafIir kaTaals a bachelor
has no voice. In Tlascala a man Of
full age who refused to marry had
his hair cut of for shame" In Korea,
on the authority OF the Rev John
Ross the male human being who
is unmarried Is never called man.
whatever his age. but goes by the name
OF 'yatOw, q name given by the Chi
nese to uumarriageable young girls.
and a man of 13 or Il has a perfect
right TO strike. abuse and order about
the 'yatoW' Of 80, who dare not so
much as open his lips to complain
Modern Hiudoos honor marriage so
highly that no bachelor is ever con-
suited on any important affair, and
the man who cannot be induced TO mar
~ is looked upon as beyond the pale
OF nature"
In japan, as in China, celibacy IS
both eschewed and tabooed, and in the
latter country especially it is all but
impossible 10 avoid marriage. be you
robust or infrm. well formed or de-
formed" Indeed, if q Chinese be sick
with a disease which is practically in
durable his parents viii by no means
suffer him 10 die until they have pro
cured him wife Nay. so indispen-
sable is marriage considered among
this people observes DIR. Wester-
marck, chat even the dead are mar
ried." Thus the spirits of all males
who die in infancy or in bOyhOOd are
in due time married 10 the spirits Of
females.