18 Social Customs &c. of the Karens. [No. 1, 
foray ; and we will work together. If I go first, thou shalt come last ; 
and if I come last, thou shalt go first.” 
Each one then gives to the other to drink, and each says to the 
other : “‘ Be faithful to thy covenant.” 
This is the proper marriage ceremony, and the parties are now 
married. 
Now, the people say, they are man and wife and may live where they 
choose, with the parents of the man, or with the parents of the 
woman, or may live independent of both. ‘‘ They may have food or 
no food ; clothes or no clothes ; may live in peace, or fight and quarrel. 
No one will interfere. It is nobody’s business but their own. No 
one has any right to control them.” As a matter of fact, however, 
the young man usually goes to live with the parents of his wife, and 
remains with them for two or three years. 
Marriage ceremonies among the Red Karens differ materiaily from 
those described above. They never betroth their children in infancy, 
but leave the young people to make their own engagements. 
When the parties have agreed to marry, the man kills one or two 
hogs or fowls in his own house, and makes a feast. To this the 
-friends of the bride, male and female, conduct her; and she eats and 
drinks, and spends the night in the house with her companions. 
In the midst of the feasting, and in the presence of the whole com- 
pany, the bridegroom offers a cup of spirits to his bride, who drinks it 
up; and then he asks her: “Is it agreeable?’’ To which she replies: 
“ Very agreeable.” 
The next day the bride returns home and makes a similar feast, to 
which the bridegroom and his friends go. It is now her turn to 
offer the cup to him, and when he replies to her question: ‘Is it 
2? 
agreeable?” that it is “very agreeable,’ the two are regarded as 
married. 
Often, however, the reply is playfully given: “ Not agreeable,” and 
then the feasts have to be repeated till the favourable response is ob- 
tained. 
Marriages, according to the Bghais, ought to be always contracted 
among relatives. First cousins marry, but that relation is considered 
undesirably near. Second cousins are deemed most suitable for 
marriage. Third cousins may marry without impropriety, though that 
