56 GEORGE D-S-DUNBAR ON 



ment token. In those Minyong villages where there are no rashengs the young people 

 " keep company" in the house of the girl's parents. The presence of the remainder 

 of the family, although not apparently causing embarrassment, gives rise to the obser- 

 vance of some etiquette. If the damsel feels kindly disposed she simply remains quiet 

 when her visitor enters; if, on the other hand, the swain is unwelcome she makes up 

 the smouldering embers on the hearth into a blaze ; gives him a drink of apong and 

 sends him away . When a girl has agreed to consort with a man , with a view to marriage , 

 the parents' consent is obtained to the union through the nearest relations of the suitor, 

 who act as intermediaries; and after this, although either party may break the engage- 

 ment, the girl does so at the risk of being sold into slavery by an irascible father. When 

 the contract is made the suitor gives some squirrel skins and some apong, or millet seed 

 ready to be made into apong, to the girl's parents. This first gift or (according to 

 Lorraine) feast is called r eying by that authority. The "engagement" token 

 amongst the Minyongs is a long loop of cane which the women wear suspended from 

 their necks. As regards keeping company, and its crystallization into marriage, I was 

 told in Rotung that the custom is for the man to marry the first girl who has a child 

 by him He is under no obligation, or contract, as regards any other girls with whom 

 he may have consorted, but the birth of a child to any of these is not considered a dis- 

 grace nor does it hindertheir subsequent marriage. During the engagement the swain 

 not only presents from time to time gifts of wild boar, deer and fish to the girl's parents, 

 but he collects what his future father-in-law determines to be a suitable number of 

 squirrel skins in part payment for his daughter before she leaves his household. The 

 Mishmis, who are polygamous, also buy their wives, paying, I am told by Captain 

 Rethell with reference to the Chulikatas, from i to 5 mithan ' for them. The price paid 

 to the parents presumably varies, as amongst other hill-tribes, in accordance with the 

 wealth of the suitor, and the form of payment is almost certain to assume the shape of 

 dankis, swords, and other animals besides mithan. 



When the Abor has paid up his last instalment he is at liberty to set up 

 a house of his own and, whilst up to this time he and his wife have worked 

 upon the fields of their respective parents, to whose households they have entirely 

 belonged in spite of the fact that children may have been born of the union, the en- 

 gaged couple now start their family life together, in a house built for them by the re- 

 mainder of the village and find themselves with their own fields and such other rights 

 of citizenship that a primitive community can boast. It is, however, customary 

 before a married couple set up house for themselves for the bridegroom to work 

 foi one season on his father-in-law's fields. If the bridegroom can afford it, he 

 gives a marriage, or house-warming, feast. Infant marriage does not exist in the 

 hills ; some remarks made by a Dafla Gam on the subject of early marriage seem to 

 indicate that intercourse between the sexes begins at the earliest possible age. When 

 he marries, an Abor incurs the obligation to provide, from among his immediate rela- 

 tions, a wife for some member of his bride's family. This arrangement is due to the 



1 Mr. O'Callaphan. A. P.O. for the Lohit. informs me that a Mishmi Gam will give up to 10 mithan for a wife. 



