Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. SOME OF THEIR NATIONAL CUSTOMS. Infant betrothals are not uncommon, but they are becoming less frequent than they used to be. As a rule, a young man chooses for himself the girl whom he wishes to marry. He begins by obtaining the permission of the girl's parents to paying his addresses—not, however, to the girl herself, but through the parents. " He then selects a go- between, who first consults a chicken's bones. If they give an unfavourable reply, the matter is allowed to drop ; if, on the other hand, the answer is favourable, the go-between arranges the match, and when this is done a feast is given by the young man's friends to those of the girl. If a girl breaks her engagement, she has to pay the expenses of the feast; but she is at liberty to receive the addresses of another suitor if her betrothed declares publicly that he desires to forfeit all that has beenspent, which is the recognized way of breaking off the match." The marriage ceremony is simple. " The bride is conducted to the house of the bridegroom's parents in a procession with music, and as she ascends the ladder she is drenched to the skin with water. Before the company leave, two elders, one on behalf of the bride and one on behalf of the bridegroom, take each a cup of spirits; the first repeats the duties of the husband in case of the wife's death, and the latter replies, acknowledging that such are his duties—one of which is that, should she be carried into captivity or killed in a foray, he must purchase her freedom or obtain the price of her blood. Each elder then gives to the other to drink, and says, ' Be faithful to your covenant.' This concludes the ceremony." The Red Karens never betroth their children in infancy, and their marriage ceremony is a singular one. " The two young pe...