IS32.] 
ISLAND OF SUMATRA. 
167 
is admitted, though not much practised, except by the Malays along 
the coast. 
As respects courtship and marriage, the Rejangs have several 
curious observances not undeserving of notice. They practise 
but httle ceremony in their courtships ; their characters and man- 
ners do not admit of it. The lover and his mistress are carefully 
kept separated as soon as the old folks have an inkling that there 
is such a thing in agitation. Indeed, the fair one is seldom per- 
mitted to leave the shelter of her mother's wing. 
The young Rejangs, however, are not to be considered as 
wanting in gallantry ; for it is said that they often evince a degree of 
delicacy towards the sex which might, perhaps, be emulated with 
advantage by people of higher pretensions to refinement. This 
trait, however, must not be considered as applicable to every indi- 
vidual. Months and years are not wasted in wooing a coy and 
fickle fair one. He does not assail her with a volley of darts, 
flames, and raptures. When he has selected a female as the 
object of his choice, he knows exactly what she is to cost him ; 
not in sighs and tears, and doubts and fears, but in good hard 
cash, the amount of which is probably all he is worth in the 
world, and which, once paid, places the obligation in his favour. 
The principal intercourse of the young people takes place at 
their dances, festivals, and other amusements, where they are not 
backward in making their own selections ; for old maids and old 
bachelors are by no means so plenty in Sumatra as catamounts 
and tigers. As soon as his choice is fixed, the lover, or hoojong, 
employs an old woman to communicate his sentiments to the 
mistress of his affections, or gaddees, whose parents then take the 
aff'air into their own hands, and if no obstacle intervene, bring it 
to a final consummation. 
There are several modes of marriage practised among them. 
The joojoor is a fixed sum of money paid down by the man to 
the father as a compensation for his daughter. In a marriage of 
this sort, the relation which is established between the husband 
and wife can differ but little from that which exists between a 
master and his slave. The relation may be one of great kind- 
ness ; but if so, it must be from condescension on the one part, 
and not from equality of the parties. By leaving a part of the 
price unpaid, which is generally done from a sense of delicacy, 
