CEYLON COCOA ESTATE 63 



A curious example of Tamil marriage 

 customs has just come to my notice. About 

 three weeks ago, our kitchen cooly asked for 

 leave to go to the " burying " of his brother — 

 one Muni Andi of Hanikawelle. Rob remarked 

 to me, u You will see he will marry his brothers 

 wife." Sure enough, last Saturday he re- 

 appeared having married the widow, who 

 accompanied him, also her two children. This 

 is thought strictly proper and correct in Tamil 

 circles. Also a girl may, and often does, marry 

 her mother s brother ; but it would be thought 

 quite improper for her to marry her fathers 

 brother. In the reverse way a young man may 

 marry his father's sister, but he must not marry 

 his maternal aunt. The Kanganys are parti- 

 cular who their daughters marry, and our head 

 Kangany is just going to take his daughter, a 

 very pretty girl of about sixteen or seventeen, 

 to India to be married, because he says there 

 is no one suitable about here. Some of the 

 young girls are particularly graceful and pretty, 

 but they go off very quickly, and women of 

 thirty look quite haggard and old. Indeed 

 both men and women look at their last stage 

 of decrepitude at the age of sixty. 



The M Ceylon Standard," the recognised 

 organ of educated native opinion, has lately 

 contained several letters and paragraphs re- 

 lating to a change in Sinhalese marriage 



