MARITAL JEALOUSY 185 



before, 'that he might beget the more children,' as his 

 neighbours told me. In fact he had four children ; 

 and the eldest son was seven years old. In the 

 wedomstwa of Uleyi in the same department I saw a 

 strong woman of twenty carrying a boy in her arms. I 

 was surprised to be told that this woman and the boy 

 in her arms were husband and wife. The Buryats 

 said that formerly still droller marriages took place, in 

 which the wives had to hold their husbands in their 

 arms while they were milking the cows." We have 

 seen how similar social arrangements result among the 

 Reddies and other tribes of Southern India. Whether 

 the practice is the same among the Buryats does not 

 distinctly appear. It is not necessary. The author 

 whom I have just quoted goes on to illustrate their 

 dissolute manners by saying: "The girl among the 

 Buryats becomes a complete wife before the official 

 union. This fact is known to every one, and nobody 

 complains of her or despises her on that account. If 

 before the official union she has had a child she is 

 married all the more willingly, for her aptitude for 

 continuing the race is put beyond doubt. Unrestrained 

 sexual intercourse may be observed, especially at the 

 Buryat festivals where young people of both sexes 

 assemble. The gatherings usually take place late in 

 the evening and may justly be called nights of love. 

 Bonfires are lighted in the neighbourhood of the 

 villages, around which men and women perform their 

 monotonous dance. From time to time pairs of dancers 

 fall out and disappear into the darkness. Before long 

 they come back and again take part in the dances, 

 only to disappear afresh in a little while. But it is 

 not always the same pairs who now retire, for the 



