220 



JOUKNAL, K.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. X. 



girl is considered an old maid, and a bachelor of twenty-five 

 is a vara avis. But, as a consequence of the dowry system 

 and the entire absence of anything like elopement or clan- 

 destine marriage, there is necessarily a very large number 

 of old maids. The unhappy condition of these creatures, 

 without education, secluded from the world and its pleasures 

 and delights, obliged to spend their lives within the four walls 

 of a house sighing for the light and comparative liberty their 

 more fortunate sisters enjoy, may be imagined ; while only 

 a Moor can appreciate the feelings of those parents who, for 

 want of the wherewithal to furnish a dowry, lack the 

 means of emancipating their daughters from their darkness 

 and drudgery. If the intelligent men of the community 

 would but reflect on the consequences of the pernicious 

 dowry system and the daily increasing misery its per- 

 petuation entails on the masses, they would surely endeavour 

 to reform it. But it is to be feared that reform in this 

 particular at all events is still very far off. 



As I have said, among the wealthy families early mar- 

 riages are the rule, and matches are often made even before 

 the girls enter on their teens. In all cases where eligible 

 machchanhal — i.e., cousins, or sons of mother's brother or 

 father's sister— are available, preference is accorded to them 

 almost as a matter of right. In the absence of any such, a 

 young man of equal caste is fixed on, and negotiations with his 

 relatives commenced. This proceeding is called sampantarn 

 pesukiratu (literally speaking, " connection"). For this pur- 

 pose some notable and elderly person is entrusted with the 

 task, being duly instructed as to details of dowry, &c. At an 

 auspicious hour he proceeds to the house of the young man's 

 parents, and commences his duties as Hymen's ambassador 

 by a faithful enumeration of the advantages of an alliance 

 between the respective families, enlarging upon (let us say) 

 'A'yesha's qualities and qualifications, her age, complexion, 

 and culinary skill, her ability to read the Kurdn in the 

 original, her amiability and obedience, and concluding 

 with a description of the dowry which her father offers in 



