AGAR CUSTOMS. 237 



are sufficient, and if the people are poor, double the number of 

 sheep and goats will suffice. Rich people will only give their 

 daughters in marriage to men who possess cattle, and so they 

 form a kind of clan, bound together both by relationship and 

 similarity of interests, to aid each other in case of any attack. 



If a man wishes to marry, he speaks in the first place to 

 the father of his choice, and after a long discussion, at which all 

 the relations of the bride, from the grandfather to the female 

 cousins, take part, the price which is first asked — a hundred 

 cows — (I speak of well-to-do people) is at last reduced to 

 about forty, of which each of the relations receives a share. 

 As soon as the price has been paid, the male relations of 

 the bridegroom ornament themselves with aprons of leopard, 

 skins, all kinds of fantastic head-dresses, and weapons, and 

 accompany the well-anointed bride, with song and dance, from 

 her father's hut to that of the bridegroom, where a feast is 

 held, for which the bridegroom provides an ox and the neces- 

 sary beverages. The next day the bride's father gives a 

 feast, on which occasion, as an act of generosity, he usually 

 returns ten of the cows paid by the bridegroom for the 

 bride. 



The Agar never permit the girls of their tribe to marry into 

 another tribe, but they themselves sometimes marry Mittu, 

 Sofi, and Beli girls, who can be obtained rather cheaply in 

 exchange for iron shovels or goats. It often happens that a 

 young man who is too poor to provide the requisite number of 

 cattle agrees with a girl to elope. If, however, they do so, 

 they are obliged to hide themselves carefully, for should they 

 be caught by their relations, the man, unless by any means he 

 manages to ransom himself, would be immediately killed, and the 

 girl taken back into her father's house, to be subsequently sold 

 at a diminished value. As a rule, however, matters are arranged 

 by the relations on either side to their mutual satisfaction. Re- 

 pudiation on account of sterility occurs but rarely, and in such 

 a case half the cattle paid for the girl has to be returned. It 

 is more common on account of adultery, in which case the guilty 

 party is condemned to death or to the repayment of eight 

 cows. Every woman has the right, should she be repudiated, 

 to take all her children with her, and to take a milch cow for 



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