The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-02-25
MARRIAGE CUSTOMS IN VARIOUS LANDS
In Certain Parts of India It Is UnIucky to Be
 Third Wife
from the London Telegraph.

| From the London Telegraph
 In certain provinces of India it Ia
 considered unlucky for woman to be
 third wife. When. therefore. q mef-
 chant of Badson. in the United Prov
 inces, who had previously buried two
 wives. proposed for the hand of q
 young girl, he was persuaded by the
 latters parents to first espouse a doll
 as his third wife, so that misfortune
 should not fall upon their daughter <
 head This he accordingly did, and,
 having inferred his inanimate spouse
 with much pomp. became for the fourth
 time husband by marrying the woman
 or his choice.
 | In parts of Southern Asia younger
 daughter is not permitted to wed until
 her elder sister has procured for herself
 a husband. The difficulty however, can ] be overcome by the senior uniting her l self in marriage to some tree or plant. | Generally. and especially where Euro | pean influence prevails, these bizzre 1 unions do not entail much inconVeni-
 ence upon the bride, who can, if she will. soon become a widow, and as such
 eligible for another and more normal
 union, by consigning her first husband
 to the fire.
 | On the other hand, such marriages
 are. i'll regions more remote where
 civilization, as We know it has not penetrated. considered serious affairs, | and as such not to be lightly dissolved.
 Infideity has before now been pun
 ished with death, and in the noun
 tainous districts around Delhi. wives
 trees, have been burned alive. At l who have been untrne to their selected
 husbands. such as oaks, fig or other Nepau. too. drastic 1punishment has In
 more than one instance been meted out | to the faithless bride, whose fate has | been solitary and subterranean con- ] finement in chains for several weeks. | The husband usually selected appears
 to be the honeysucke and such women
 as are true to the plant are held in
 the highest honor. Every spring when inc fragrsnt honeysuckle first puts | forth It's petals great feast, accom- ! panied by solemn religious ceremonial, | is held. At this the wives of the flower I the most profound respect while the tconstancy is held up as an example to ] be followed by all the young women of
 tho district.
 Flower pot marriages not infre- 1 quenty take place in China. When n 1 young woman loses her fiancee by l death she sometimes VOWS to be true 7 goes through q form of marriage with | a flower pot. The ceremony over. she takes up her residence with her dead 1 lovers parents. who are hy custom
 obliged to provide for her needs. Some while since marriage of this kind took place at Sutshau, when a Chinese | lady of the upper class on the death.
 on the eve of their marriage. of her intended husband. the son of the vice | chancellor of the Imperial Academy
 at Picking, espoused q rel vase.
 An equally singular and very grew
 some matrimonial custom also prevails | in China, in the marriage of the dead. A year or so back missionary was summoned to lead the burial service over a dead man. He might had he | cared. have also. assisted al wedding for no sooner had he retired than a bride for the deceased. in the corpse | of a young girl. was brought upon the
 scene and soiemnly united to the dead body, with which it was afterward in tered. Such marriages. arranged thai the departed spirit may not wandel
 about cympanionless in the world o