﻿l88 ON THE MOUNTAINEERS 



once that a woman asked another why she came so 

 late to her business of sowing grain : she answered, 

 that her husband was gone to battle, and that the 

 necessity of preparing food and other things for him 

 had occasioned her delay. This answer was overheard 

 by a man at enmity with her husband ; and he was 

 filled with resentment against her, considering, that, 

 as she had prepared food for her husband for the pur- 

 pose' of sending him to battle against his tribe, so, in 

 general, if women were not to remain at home^ their 

 husbands could not be supplied with provision, and 

 consequently could not make war with advantage. 

 From that time it became a constant practice to cut off 

 the heads of the enemy's women ; especially, if they 

 happen to be pregnant, and therefore confined to their 

 houses. And this barbarity, is carried so far, that if a 

 Cucl assail the house of an enemy, and kill a woman 

 with child, so that he may bring two heads, he ac- 

 quires honour and celebrity in his tribe, as the de- 

 stroyer of two foes at once. 



As to the marriages of this' wild nation ; when a 

 rich man has made a contract of marriage, he gives four 

 or five head of gayals (the cattle of the mountains) 

 to the father and mother of the bride, whom he car- 

 ries to his own house : her parents then kill the gayah* 

 and, having prepared fermented liquors and boiled 

 rice, with other eatables, invite the father, mother, 

 brethren, and kindred of the bridegroom to a nuptial 

 entertainment. When a man of small property is in- 

 clined to marry, and a mutual agreement is made, a 

 similar method is followed in a lower degree : and a 

 man may marry any woman, except his own mother. 

 If a married couple live cordially together, and have a 

 son, the wife is fixed and irremoveable ; but, if they 

 have no son, and especially if they live together on bad 

 terms, the husband may divorce his wife, and marry 

 another woman. 



