PRACTICES TO OBTAIN CHILDREN 59 



the marriage. In Great Mandheling and Batang Natal 

 (West Sumatra) the bride and bridegroom must each 

 eat a piece of the white and the yolk of the eggs which 

 lie on the top of the rice at the wedding ceremony. 

 In Minahassa they erect a small altar and offer on it 

 some rice and a boiled egg. They afterwards consume 

 the offering, calling down thereby the divine blessing. 

 Among certain of the Dyaks a hen's egg is struck 

 upon the teeth of the wedded pair and then held under 

 their noses. Among the Orang Maanjan of Borneo 

 they are smeared with a mixture of the contents of an 

 egg and blood of a fowl or pig : this is the binding 

 ceremony. Among the Olon Lavangan, another tribe 

 of the same island, the chief takes a hen's egg, 'opens 

 it with a knife and smears the contents on the fore- 

 heads of the pair. 1 In Armenia and Kurdistan the 

 Mohammedans take various measures against unfruit- 

 fulness in marriage. One of these consists in the 

 priest's writing the one hundred and twelfth chapter 

 of the Koran upon an egg and giving the bride 

 and bridegroom each one half of the egg to eat. 

 Or else he writes it upon a triangular spear over 

 which they are required to jump. 2 In Sikkim a 

 present of eggs is an offer of marriage and the accept- 

 ance of the gift is an acceptance of the offer. Among 

 the Shan of Further India the gift of eggs among 

 other things to the bride and her parents is expected 

 from the bridegroom. In South Celebes a hen's egg 

 is always to be found among the wedding presents and 



1 These and other customs have been brought together by 

 Dr. R. Lasch, Globus, Ixxxix. 104. 



2 Volland, GlobuSj xci. 344. Compare the Jewish rite of 

 jumping over fish, supra, p. 51. 



