CH. XI CUSTOMS OF THE MINAHA8SEBS 271 



to pour down on the young couple all the blessings of 

 life — good luck, health, wealth, and, of course, many 

 children. 



Now the young pair take some cooked rice with a piece 

 of pork or chicken and put it on a plate saying, ' Eat gods ! ' 

 Then they go down to the river as if to bathe, but in fact 

 only just make their feet wet, and finally the young bride- 

 groom takes a piece of wood, some sagoweer and a sword, 

 while the bride takes some food for pigs, some wood and 

 greens as symbols of worthiness and independent position 

 in the married life. 



When this part of the ceremony is concluded, they go 

 into the house and diae together. The following morning 

 they again go down to the water, and go through the cere- 

 mony which is called ' seeking for a mouse ' together {see 

 p. 276). The fosso lasts five days after this, drums are 

 beaten, kolintangs sounded, and the time is passed in 

 eating, drinking, dancing and other festivities. 



It is the general opinion of those who have written 

 about this sham infant-marriage that it must formerly 

 have been a true and binding one ; but it may be that in 

 this ceremony of the Minahassers we have after all rather 

 a precursor than a successor of strict infant marriages. It 

 is a generally recognised axiom of sociology that every 

 custom has been developed not by any sudden change 

 but by a slow and gradual process, a building up, in 

 fact, of modification upon modification imtil the variety 

 is produced. Natura non facit saltum is as true when 

 applied to the laws which govern social progress as it is 

 when applied to those which govern animal and vegetable 

 life. 



During the change, then, from a state of society with 

 no infant marriages to a state of society in which there 

 are, we must suppose there have existed a number of 



