At about 15 years of age, when our girls are still in short dresses and are not always dignified by the term "young lady", the female Sakai is generally a wife.
From her infancy a baby-girl may be betrothed by her parents to some boy of another tribe. But if when the time comes to unite in matrimony the two young people engaged from babyhood, one no longer likes the other in the quality of a life-partner, they exchange a quiet gne (no) and the engagement is at a complete end.[10]
Neither one nor the other is offended at this refusal for they are of full accord that it is better not to be bound together unless the desire is mutual, as heartache and suffering would be the sure result.
Wonderful philosophy, in all its simplicity, that liberates the little Sakai world from an enormous number of martyrs, and sensational crimes.
The girl is left free in the choice of a husband. Of course advice is readily given her, favourable or otherwise to the suitor, but nobody can compel her to wed a man she is not inclined to.
This total absence of coercion is no marvel, however, for in the forest there are no fortune-hunters, dowries being unknown, and there are no Dianas to join in the chase after a rent-roll. There is no ambition with regard to title, position or lineage because all are equal. They are human creatures, made in the same form and invested with the same right of living. There is no difference of blood amongst them for it is always red.
The young Sakai that wishes to form a family, accompanied by some near relations (grandfather, father or brothers) leaves his own village and goes to a more distant encampment.
It often happens that hunger, dusk, or some other circumstance determines this Pilgrim of Love and his companions, to stop at one hut rather than another.