REMBAU HISTORY, ETC. 81 
The discovery of a suitor’s low birth, or of the fact that a 
customary slur (chachat) rests on his family, provides no valid 
reason for the cancellation of an engagement once formally 
concluded. The suitor, on his part, may decline to fulfill 
the engagement if .his betrothed suffers from dropsy or 
hemorroids, is insane, or incapable of consummating the 
marriage, (ratka). 
If the suitor refuse, for an inadequate reason, to proceed 
to marriage he forfeits the marriage fee, the gage of betrothal, 
(tanda) and the presents given by him, but retains the 
presents he has received. If the parents of the girl break off 
a match capriciously, they must repay the gage double.” If 
the death of either party, after betrothal, prevent the marriage, 
half the marriage fee is repaid to the family of the suitor, and 
the presents on both sides are returned. Should a third 
person attempt or accomplish the seduction” of a betrothed 
girl, her parents are bound to refund twofold the fee and 
presents of the suitor, unless he agrees to condone the offence 
by proceeding with the marriage. If the parents of the girl 
have consented to, or connived at the seduction, they are 
mulcted in three times the amount of the marriage fee. The 
seducer isliable to a fine of $50, payable to the mother of his 
victim. 
A bride-groom finding that he has been deceived in 
accepting his wife as a virgin, intimates the fact to his mother- 
in-law by overturning the szreh tray, when offered him, and is 
entitled to a refund of the difference between the marriage fee 
for virgin and divorcee. 
The ceremonies accompanying the wedding of a virgin in 
Rembau extend normally over three days. If a buffalo is 
killed for the feast, tne sanction and presence of the tribal 
chief is essential to the ceremony. Poorer folk are content 
with killing a goat or fowls, and conclude the feasting in one 
(1) vide Saying 48, App. I. 
(2) vide Saying 45, App. I. 
(3) Newbold Br. Settlements in Malacea, vol. II. p. 248 calls this 
offence Angkara : the term is unknown in Rembau. 
R. A. Soc., No. 56, 1910. 
*6 
Effect on 
terms of enga- 
gement of. 
(1). death of 
either party : 
(2). Seduc- 
tion of woman 
Marriage 
Ceremonial. 
Duration of 
the festivities, 
