RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 45 



of the marriage has been given to the husband's 

 parents and the second to the wife's. Presumably 

 the rest are retained and follow the husband and 

 wife. 1 In Selangor, one of the states of the Malay 

 Peninsula, the people are Mohammedans. But the 

 bridegroom is "expected to remain under the roof 

 (and eye) of his mother-in-law for about two years 

 (reduced to forty-four days in the case of ' royalty '), 

 after which he may be allowed to remove to a house 

 of his own." A ritual stealing of the bridegroom 

 by his relatives takes place on the third night after 

 completion of the wedding. He is brought back the 

 next day and a grand lustral ceremony is performed. 2 

 The fisher-folk of Patani Bay, also a Mohammedan 

 people, are divided into families, each of which 

 reverences a particular species of fish and abstains 

 from eating it. This cult, if cult it may be called, 

 appears to be, or to have been originally, descendible 

 in the female line. A man who marries into one of 

 these families becomes liable to the prohibitions 

 attaching to his wife's family ; if himself of a fisher- 

 family he becomes liable to the prohibitions of both. 

 It is customary to spend the first fortnight of married 

 life at the house of the bride's parents. At the end 

 of fifteen days the bridegroom's parents come and 

 formally conduct the couple back to his old home, 

 where they live together until he can afford to have a 

 house of his own. 3 Here an analogous ceremony 



1 Gray, ii. 304. 



2 Skeat, 384. All brides and bridegrooms are treated as 

 " royalty," *>., as sacred, taboo. I am not quite sure, therefore, 

 whether Mr. Skeat means that in all cases the term of residence at 

 the bride's house is reduced to forty-four days. 



3 Annandale, Fasc. Mai. i. 75. 



