CH. XI CUSTOMS OF THE MINAHASSEB8 27(7 



the hairs of this mouse.' Other ceremonies of a similar 

 kind are gone through in the course of the marriage 

 fosso. 



The Alfur of Minahassa was in olden times undoubtedly 

 a monogamist ; the occasional occurrence of polygamy in 

 later times was a degeneration from the old customs brought 

 about perhaps by Mohammedan influence. 



It should be noted here that amongst the Minahassers 

 there was no law of exogamy — that is to say, a man was not 

 forbidden to marry a member of his own tribe. This is 

 a fact of no little importance ; for in many savage countries 

 throughout the world the laws of exogamy are very strict. 

 As a general rule, he did marry within his own tribe — 

 for example, the Toulours, i.e. the inhabitants of Tolian, 

 Tolimambot, Eemboken, Kakas, &c., usually married 

 Toulours, but at the same time there was no strict rule of 

 endogamy, and a man might marry out of his tribe if he 

 liked (22). 



The marriages, moreover, were true ' deega ' marriages ; 

 the woman invariably followed the man after marriage to 

 his village and his house. At the beginning of the century 

 the young couple lived with the parents of the bridegroom 

 in one of those large houses capable of holding two or three 

 hundred persons to which I have already referred, but in 

 later times the newly married people soon retired into a 

 house of their own. 



Marriages were in fact permitted between all persons 

 except those who were very nearly related to one another, 

 such as between brothers and sisters, uncles and nieces, 

 or aunts and nephews, between cousins or combinations 

 of these relations. It is said (58) that in olden times 

 in the southern districts of Minahassa, in the neighbour- 

 hood of Tonsawang, even these marriages were not for- 

 bidden, and that father and daughter, mother and son. 



