MATRIMONIAL CUSTOMS. 89 



grown up. The women had waited for their 

 baby bridegrooms and grown old in waiting. 

 When the bridegroom was old enough to marry 

 the woman of his father's choice he had done 

 so, rather than incur his father's displeasure 

 and the risk of being shot or fined by his 

 wife's relatives. Thus havino- been considerate 



o 



of other people's feelings in the first place, he 

 thereafter held himself free to consider his 

 own, and immediately added to the wife 

 chosen for him by his elders another and a 

 younger one of his own choice. 



Sometimes, too, a Svan indulges in what 

 may be called a probationary marriage — that 

 is to say, he falls half in love with some village 

 lassie, but not feeling quite sure of her temper 

 or the durability of his affection, he takes her 

 on a year's trial ; and if at the end of that time 

 she has made him the father of a fine boy and 

 never mdul^'ed in ' nao;o:in2: ' or curtain lee- 

 tureSj he on his part makes the matrimonial 



