CH. XI CUSTOMS OF THE MINAHASSEB8 269 



lines of evolution along which we may suppose the Mina- 

 hassers have travelled in arriving at their present social 

 condition. 



Many difficulties beset the path of the evolutionist who 

 attempts to work out the development of human customs ; 

 for man is a wandering animal, sometimes migrating in 

 thousands from place to place, driving before him the 

 original possessors of the soil, or sometimes straying in 

 smaller parties, which ultimately amalgamate with the 

 primitive inhabitants. In consequence, we find in ahnost 

 every race fusions of physical structure, language, and 

 custom which verily try the patience of the ethnologist 

 to unravel. 



We have evidence for beheviug that the Malays 

 migrated at some period before the Christian era from 

 Southern Asia. This migration alone must have had very 

 considerable effect in modifying their language and social 

 customs. The Malays of Java and Sumatra were pro- 

 foundly influenced by the adoption of Buddhism in the 

 third and fourth centuries a.d., which gave way before a 

 flood of Mohammedanism in later times. 



Mohammedanism has made its influence felt all over the 

 Malay area, and even the Christianity of the earlier Eoman 

 CathoUc priests has left its marks in the legends and songs 

 and probably also the customs of these people. 



It is no easy task, then, to pick out from the maze of 

 customs and ceremonies those which are characteristically 

 Malay, and separate them from those which were adopted 

 from the primitive inhabitants they conquered and sup- 

 planted, or from those which have more recently been 

 introduced from continental Asia and from Europe. 



In the following pages I have collected together many 

 of the most important ceremonies and laws connected with 

 the matrimonial institutions of the people of Minahassa. 



