CH. vm CHABACTEBI8TIC8 OF SANGIB ISLANDS 197 



family made a pilgrimage every three or four months to 

 the top of the Awu volcano, and tested by means of a stick 

 the heat of the water of the lake which is found in the 

 crater. If the water was hot enough to boil their rice they 

 considered it to be a sign that an eruption would soon 

 foUow. 



The marriage customs throughout the Sangir, Talaut, 

 and Siauw archipelago are based on the old matriarchal 

 system — that is, when a man is married he becomes a 

 member of his wife's family, and must leave his own and 

 go to live in the village or the house of his wife's parents. 

 There seems to be no law of exogamy, for a man may 

 marry a woman belonging to his own village or not, as he 

 pleases ; but in Nanusa I understood that marriage was not 

 permitted between members of the same household. The 

 enormous households of the Nanusa archipelago are pro- 

 bably the remnants of a much more complete system of 

 intra-tribal clanships, which has become almost obhterated 

 in the more highly developed races of Sangir and Siauw. 



Before a man is able to take a wife, however, he is 

 obliged to bring a certain amount of property — or, to use the 

 common Malay word, harta — to the parents of his fiancee. 

 The amount of the harta varies of course with the locality 

 and the rank of the contracting parties. Thus a rajah's 

 daughter in some parts of Sangir expects a dowry of twelve 

 slaves, twelve gongs, twelve shirts, twelve china plates, one 

 hundred small plates, twelve swords, and one kati of gold, or 

 its equivalent in money (35). 



Divorce is by no means an uncommon proceeding, 

 and is very readily granted. Mr. Gunther told me that in 

 Mangarang a man is sometimes married two or three 

 times in the course of the year. The rajah of Morong in 

 the Talaut islands told me that in case of a divorce the 

 children go 'where they do not cry,' and in the case of 



