A NATIVE WEDDING AT A MISSION CHURCH.
From a Photo. by Rev. T. B. R. Westgate.
Amongst the Wasagara tribe, when a man wants to marry the woman of his choice he gives her a "chipingo" (engagement-ring). Should another suitor come along afterwards and want to pay his addresses to the engaged girl, she reminds him that she has the "chipingo" of another man—an example that might be commended to some ladies in civilized countries. When the man has procured the wherewithal for the completion of the match, he proceeds to the house of his sweetheart's parents and, the relations and friends of both parties having assembled, the palaver begins. The bridegroom, if a poor man, pays the dowry in fowls—two hens and a cock being deemed sufficient. One hen is on account of the father and the other on account of the mother of the bride. The cock is killed and eaten with a pot of porridge. When the feast is over the ablutions are performed, and the bride and bridegroom are enjoined by the conductors of the ceremony to be true and faithful to each other. The children of the union, if any, are reckoned amongst the mother's clan, and not the father's. Sometimes, amongst this same tribe, a man will actually bespeak a wife before she is born, by arrangement with a certain family; and, in order to forestall other suitors, he also offers his services to her parents as a kind of slave. He works away, patiently awaiting the birth and growth of his future wife. Should it be a male child, of course his disappointment is great. As soon as the child can tell her right hand from her left, her mother whispers into her ears her future relationship with the great big man who milks the cows and hoes in the garden. She also instils into her mind her duty towards him as his future wife. The little maiden must run out to meet him when returning from a journey and take from him his spear, etc., and carry them for him into the house. When the girl is approaching maturity the man pays the dowry, which usually consists of five goats, the fifth being killed and eaten at the wedding-feast.
The Wasukuma, a tribe living to the south of the Victoria Nyanza, conduct their love-making as follows: When a man has spied out a woman whom he fancies, he sends a friend to her parents' house to reconnoitre. On arriving he stands at the door, and the people of the house invite him inside and offer him a stool. They then enter into conversation with him and ask his business. Without hesitation he tells them that he has been commissioned by a certain person who wants a wife to come and be his spokesman. If the father of the girl is pleased with the proposed alliance he gives the spokesman a goat, which he thankfully accepts, returning with joy to the anxious swain to announce the success of his mission.
The day of the great marriage palaver having arrived, the relations and friends of both parties assemble and dispose themselves into two groups—one group being the relations and friends of the bride, and the other of the bridegroom. The hills and vales resound with the eloquence of the orators who speak on either side. But, strange to say, they speak of the stones lying around as representing cattle, and do not address their audience directly. A speaker on behalf of the bridegroom rises and names a certain number of stones (i.e., cattle); and when he has finished, a member of the opposite group rises and says the number of "stones" named is not enough. So they go on from morning till night, debating the number of cattle to be paid as dowry. When they have come to an agreement, the bride's friends take away the cattle; and afterwards beer is made and an ox killed for the wedding-feast. The friends then assemble at the house of the bride, where they eat, drink, and dance for two days, and then disperse, save four or five special friends of the bridegroom, who remain at the house until the ceremonial washing is over. Then they too depart—all save one, who remains two days more to see how the young couple get on, and to carry the tidings to the bridegroom's friends.
AN ENGAGED COUPLE—THE MISSION COOK AND HIS FIANCÉE.
From a Photo. by Rev. H. Cole.
Last, but not least, I will relate the strange but interesting methods of the Wagogo—a tribe found two hundred and fifty miles west from the coast opposite Zanzibar. A woman of this tribe always refuses a man when he first proposes to her. Knowing the usual tactics of the opposite sex, the man does not take "No" for an answer, but keeps on bombarding the citadel until he has captured it. Sometimes, however, it happens that the woman really means what she says, and the man cannot by hook or by crook cajole her into marrying him!
