238 A CAFFER MARRIAGE. 



Proceeding on our journey over a very rough and 

 difficult country, in many places almost impassable 

 for the waggon, towards the afternoon we came 

 up with a large party of Gaffers from the surround- 

 ing villages, who had assembled for the purpose 

 of celebrating a marriage. They immediately sur- 

 rounded us, and on their repeated importunities we 

 distributed among them tobacco, beads, buttons, &c. 

 with which they appeared greatly delighted. These 

 applicants were principally females, the men being 

 occupied in admiring our oxen, an additional span of 

 which followed behind the waggon in charge of 

 Dempy, our Malay servant # . 



A marriage, it would seem, is a very formal affair 

 in this country, all the people of the kraals where 

 the bride and bridegroom reside having a right to 

 give their opinion, and consent or object to the 

 union. The friends of the former bring her to the 

 man's residence, his relatives being assembled to 

 receive her; when the timid girl is compelled to 

 hear their coarse criticisms on her person, which are 

 generally very disparaging. One cries out, " What 

 limbs ! how they bend under her body !" Another 

 exclaims, ts What arms ! the wind will blow them 

 away ; they hang at her side like feathers." After 

 they have exhausted the venom of their wit, to their 

 own evident delight, which is heightened by the 

 girl's mortification, they lead her round the cattle 



* See the annexed Plate. 



