396 OIRALTA. 
by green boughs, their companioDs dancing joyously round them 
in their usual wild and fantastic way. 
Marriage, in this country, appears, generally speaking, to be a 
mere civil institution ; the priests being rarely called in to sanc- 
tion the rites. When a man is desirous of marrying a girl, he 
directly applies to her parents or nearest relatives, and their con- 
sent being once obtained, the matter is considered as settled, the 
girl herself being very seldom consulted upon the question. The 
next subject to be arranged is the dower which the girl is to bring, 
consisting of so many wakeas of gold, a certain number of cattle, 
musquets, or pieces of cloth, and this generally occasions, as 
in most other countries, very serious difficulty ; the husband 
naturally considering the interest of his wife identified with 
his own in the bargain which he has to make with her pa- 
rents or friends. This important point being once adjusted, no 
farther difficulty occurs : the friends of both parties assemble, the 
marriage is declared, and, after a day spent in festivity, the bride 
is carried to the house of her husband, either on his shoulders, or 
those of his friends; the mother, at parting with her daughter, 
strenuously enjoining the husband to a strict performance of the 
conjugal rites. If the husband should subsequently find just cause 
to doubt the integrity of his wife, the union is immediately dis- 
solved, and the girl is sent back to her family in disgrace : on the 
contrary, if the proof required by the custom of the country can 
be produced, it is given over on the following day to the mother 
or nearest female relative of the bride, and is preserved as a tes- 
timony in favour of the wife, to be brought forward on any future 
quarrel with the husband. 
