238 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



dried fish, or in salt. Betrothals may take place at a very early 

 age — sometimes before the girl is born, or even when there is no 

 present prospect of a girl. 



The bride-seeker, starting on his quest, pays great attention 

 to his dreams. If they are of fire or flood, the matter has a dubi- 

 ous aspect, and he usually gives it up; but to dream of clear 

 water or of receiving money is a good sign. The girl is not con- 

 sulted, and all is arranged by intermediaries, without the parties 

 seeing one another. A few days previous to the wedding the 

 bride goes round and takes leave of her relatives, with lamenta- 

 tions that she is to be consigned to strangers — for marriages are 

 always between persons of different clans — and receives their 

 wedding-gifts. Then, just in time to be at the wedding, the peo- 

 ple of the groom's village march to the bride's village with drum 

 and song, and parade the streets, brandishing their drawn knives 

 and shouting, till a wild dance is started, which passes into a 

 long, serpentine movement with windings and inwindings, and 

 the chanting of a recitative by one of the participants, and the 

 repetition in chorus of the last strophe, or its final sound, which 

 is always a vowel. There is nothing like singing in this, for 

 musical song is not known in Nias. The women dance in pairs, 

 deliberately and gracefully waving the ends of the scarfs which 

 are hung upon their necks. A breakfast follows, and a more 

 elaborate dinner in the evening. 



The bride sits through these proceedings with downcast eyes, 

 wearing an air of modest reserve. Previous to her leaving the 

 house, she must be paid for ; and then she will not go, and has 

 to be taken out. When she has been successfully brought down 

 the ladder, the groom is called and saunters out from the throng 

 like one of the most indifferent persons in it. Then the heads of 

 the pair are made to touch at the foot of an idol-post which has 

 been planted in front of the house, usually against the resistance 

 of the bride, and they are a married couple. The groom rubs 

 the bride's lips with a certain leaf, telling her she must not be 

 obstinate, and she is led away — for she will not go of herself — 

 between two women. 



On arriving at the groom's residence, a kerchief is thrown 

 over the heads of the couple, and the chief gives them his bless- 

 ing by waving his sword over them. The bride is taken into 

 the house without her taking hold of the ladder — for the raf- 

 ters are the first thing to be touched by her — and, when she is 

 seated, a boy is placed upon her lap, in token of her becoming 

 a servant, after which she gives betel to her husband. 



The groom or his father gives a feast in his turn, at which a 

 consultation of entrails is held after the old Roman fashion, to 

 determine what the character of the bride's life will be. She 



