52 



CORAL AND ATOLLS 



help of his friends, captured a maiden from the company 

 of a neighbouring tribe. The bridegroom's friend was his 

 assistant in the raid, and to-day the descendant of the brother 

 raider is seen, in our own weddings, as the best man, though 

 custom has long since spared him the ordeal of making sword- 



Fm. 1. 



A Wedding Geoup in Cocos-Keeijng. 

 The bride and bridegroom are wearing the flower-decked headgear. 



play, or firing blank charges in the direction of the bride's 

 mother. 



Just as our best man is seen on a glorified scale in these 

 Cocos wedding ceremonies, so is the custom of sending out 

 Avedding cake to absent friends displayed in its archaic form 

 at the feasts of the Malays. The food that is to be used at 

 the wedding feast — or indeed at any other ceremony of general 



