18 Social Customs &c. of the Karen*. [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 Ked Karens differ materially 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 

 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 



