THE EEGULATION OF NUMBEKS 227 



married, but the cause lay in their inability to raise the shell money 

 with which to purchase a wife '.* In Sumatra marriage by 

 purchase is said to constitute a certain hindrance to marriage, in 

 spite of which, however, there are few celibates. 2 Among the 

 Negritos of Zambala the amount of the purchase money is large and 

 ' there is no doubt that the gifts made represent almost all the 

 wealth of which a young man and family can boast '. 3 In the 

 Western Islands of the Torres Straits men marry when between 

 twenty and twenty-five years old, 4 marriage being by purchase. 5 

 In certain cases where head hunting is practised prowess in this 

 art must be shown before marriage. 6 In certain parts of Borneo 

 4 it is a rule among all the tribes that no youth can regularly wear 

 a mandan, or be married or associate with the opposite sex, till he 

 has been on one or more head hunting expeditions '. 7 



Marriage by purchase is often found in Africa. The necessity 

 of collecting the purchase money frequently involves some post- 

 ponement of marriage. Formerly among the Thonga a man 

 generally married when about twenty-five years old, 8 but there 

 was some variation in the age owing to the varying difficulty 

 experienced in getting together the necessary cattle. 9 Sooner or 

 later nearly all the men among this tribe get married ; 10 and this 

 is true of all Bantu peoples. * The kind of individual called 

 a bachelor does not abound among the Bantu. The wretched, the 

 invalids, the weak-minded only, are deprived of the legal marriage 

 which for the black man is and remains the one object in life.' n 

 Sometimes in South Africa ' a young man too poor to acquire 

 a wife by the transfer of cattle would make an arrangement with 

 the father of the girl to live with her and serve him '. 12 Among the 

 Baronga young men do not marry for several years after puberty. 13 

 Werner's description of marriage among the Zulus is of particular 

 interest. ' The price paid by the Zulus (under the name of Lobola) 

 and others cannot property be called purchase, being rather in the 

 nature of a settlement or guarantee that the suitor is able to 

 support a wife ; it is held by her family in trust for her and her 

 children.' 14 The same author, speaking generally of British Central 



1 Banks, loc. cit., p. 288. 2 Marsden, Sumatra, pp. 218, 219 ; Brenner, Besuch 

 bei den Kannibalen, p. 247. 3 Reed, loc. cit., p. 56. 4 Cambridge 



Anthropological Expedition, vol. v, p. 247. 5 Ibid., p. 230. Hickson, 



loc. cit., p. 275 (of the New Hebrides). 7 Bock, Head Hunters, p. 216. 



8 Junod, South African Tribe, p. 100. 9 Ibid., p. 102. 10 Ibid., p. 101, 



11 Ibid., p. 125. Theal, Yellow- and Dark-Skinned People, p. 220. 



13 Junod, Ba-Ronga, p. 30. 14 Werner, loc. cit., p. 129. 



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