WHITE RHINOCEROSES 315 



When the girl's father has agreed upon her purchase 

 price, he kills a goat; the boy's father also kills a 

 goat. Then a feast is prepared to wliich all the friends 

 are invited, and thus the marriage is consummated with 

 meat and a native beer called mwemhi. 



Each man has as many wives as he can afford to 

 buy, for the more women he has, the more cliildren he 

 can raise, the girls to sell and the boys to work for 

 him until their marriage, while the women, of course, 

 in addition to bearing many children, do all the 

 hard labor. 



The father of a boy helps him to buy his first wife, 

 which amounts to the same tiling as a civilized father 

 placing his son in business. He must earn the others 

 for himself, and his success in hfe is measured by the 

 number of wives he leaves to mourn his passing. 

 When a husband dies, his wives, along with his cattle 

 and other property, go to his eldest brother, who adds 

 them to his hst of assets. If the widows do not like 

 their new husband, they can select some other man, 

 who can get them by paying to the new owner their 

 list price in cattle. Middle-aged and old widows bring 

 a very small price, and sometimes the eldest brother 

 who falls heir to an odd lot of old wives feels unkindly 

 toward his late of kin. 



WTien I asked this young cliief about the custom of 

 their women going naked, he rephed that they had 

 always gone so; that it was best for their bodies. A 

 man was stronger and could take a chance of clotliing 

 breaking down liis health; besides, there was only one 

 man in a family to buy clotliing for, but each man 

 had many wives, and it would ruin him if he had to 

 buy clothes for all of them I 



