AN AFRICAN BETROTHAL. 147 
Nothing of the sort! When a girl is born among 
the Bakalai, while she is still a child she is often betroth- 
ed, and now and then she goes to the village where her 
future husband lives. Her mother or her father will 
take her there, and after a while she comes back to her 
home, and this continues until she is finally given away. 
As she grows older she visits her intended husband less 
frequently, while he, on the other hand, comes oftener to 
the village of her parents. 
You will ask me how they get betrothed or engaged. 
No ring is given. The man who comes to ask the girl 
comes first to talk the matter over. He brings a few 
presents, say a goat or a few fowls, and a few jars of 
palm wine, and places them at the feet of the girl’s father. . 
Then he begins a long rigmarole, and if he could he 
would go as far back as Adam. At first he speaks at 
random, talking to somebody else all the time, for they 
never speak directly to the person they address. Thus 
he goes on for a couple of hours before he comes to the — : 
point. In the mean time the presents are still lying be- 
fore the father. The whole people of the village are be 
_ there listening, and approving or disapproving by grunts. 
The man gets tremendously excited, and begins to hal- 
loo until he is covered with perspiration. After he ~ 
has finished there is a pause. Somebody else gets up, 
and pleads sometimes for the suitor, and sometimes in 
behalf of the villagers or relatives to whom the girl be- 
longs. 
At last the father gets up,and he tries to play a 
shrewd game. He never means what he says; he talks 
not to the suitor but to one that has come with him, for it 
is the fashion here, as I have said, never to speak directly 
