THE EEGULATION OF NUMBERS 229 



as a result of the high marriage price, if his family cannot help 

 him, a man * cannot save enough to procure a wife until he is 

 thirty or even older '.^ Cureau states that in the Congo basin 

 a bride's relatives are much interested in estimating a suitor's 

 capabilities of supporting a family and of, in general, doing well.^ 

 Among the Ekoi people, ' by a native custom if a man wishes to 

 marry an Ekoi maiden he must serve her people for some consider- 

 able time, usually from two to three years. His work mostly 

 consists in helping to clear bush for next season's farms, but other 

 services may be required of him. During this time he is expected 

 to make presents to the relations of his future wife.' ' 



Very similar institutions are found in America. Among the 

 Nandowensis, ' when one of their young men has fixed upon 

 a young woman he approves of, he discovers his passion to her 

 parents, who give him an invitation to come and live with them 

 in their tent. He assiduously accepts the offer, and by so doing 

 engages to reside in it for a whole year, in the character of a 

 married servant. During this time he hunts, and brings all the 

 game he kills to the family, by which means the father has an 

 opportunity of seeing whether he is able to provide for the support 

 of his daughter and the children that might be the consequence 

 of their union.' * Among the Ojebway Indians marriage is also 

 by service and the future father-in-law is described as being 

 anxious that the suitor should be a good hunter.^ Of the Natchez 

 it is said to be ' rare for young men to marry before they be five- 

 and-twenty. Till they arrive at that age they are looked upon as 

 too weak, without understanding and experience.' ^ According 

 to Dorsey, men of the Omaha tribe did not marry formerly until 

 between twenty-five and thirty.'^ Among the Attakapas, ' if 

 a savage desires to marry a girl whose father is still living, he 

 approaches the latter ; the latter then inquires if he is a brave 

 warrior, a good hunter ', if he can make weapons, and so on.^ In 

 Mexico men married about twenty.^ In British Guiana marriage 

 is by service, and the bridegroom must show that he is capable of 



' Weeks, J . A. I., vol. xxxix, p. 417. " Cureau, loc. cit., p. 417. 



^ Talbot, loc. cit., p. 105. It will also be remembered that contraceptive 

 practices are of importance in Africa, and that there is evidence that in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Port Herald a young couple must not have children until they have 

 built a house for themselves. See p. 177. 



* Carver, loc. cit., p. 373. ^ Jones, Ojebway Indians, p. 79. * Du 



Pratz, loc. cit., p. 199. ' Dorsey, loc. cit., p. 259. ' Bossu, Voyages, 



p. 247. ^ Joyce, Mexican Archaeology, p. 162. See also Bancroft, loc. cit., 



vol. ii, p. 251. 



