of Edinburgh, Session 1884 - 85 . 229 
friends away. Then at last the marriage is consnmmated amidst the 
“Ku-ru-rus” of the assembled friends. The next morning the 
wife leads her husband and presents him to her parents ; he looks 
them in the face and speaks to them for the first time since his 
engagement ; he salutes them, and presents them, as also his wife’s 
unmarried brothers and sisters, with a ring. He lives with his wife 
at his father-in-law’s until his first child is born, when he is per- 
mitted to take his wife away and set up housekeeping on his own 
account. During the whole of this time the father-in-law has to 
pay all housekeeping expenses for the young couple, and the husband 
is entitled to three meals during each night. Amongst the poorer 
classes the whole of these festivities, which usually occupy twelve or 
fourteen days, are compressed into seven days, the bridegroom being 
led to the bride’s hut on the evening of the marriage day. 
Burial Customs . — Funerals take place within a few hours of death. 
The corpse is wrapped in a winding shroud of damoor cloth, and 
carried to the grave on a rude bier hastily constructed of wooden 
poles lashed together with rope. It is not used a second time, but 
is burnt. Graves are dug 6 or 8 feet deep and covered with stones,, 
but the Arab method of burial is being rapidly introduced info the 
country. The graveyards are situated at some considerable distance 
from the villages. 
When a woman dies her body is buried without much ceremony, 
but her friends accompany it to the grave uttering mournful cries. 
When a man dies, however, a priest is sent for, and his friends and 
relations collected. The priest recites some prayers, and the body 
is then conveyed to the grave, accompanied by the friends and by 
women wailing for the dead. The usual Moslem rites are performed, 
and the company then disperses, to meet again a little later in the 
outside village yard, where an hour is devoted to prayer, and where 
they then hold a solemn funeral feast. The food for this occasion 
is provided by the deceased’s nearest kin, but contributions are also 
brought by friends, and if they should arrive too late the animals 
they give are reserved until two months later, for it is the custom to 
kill a cow or a goat every two months for two years after the death 
of a father. On such occasions the meat must not be taken into 
the hut where the man died, but eaten outside, and the whole of it 
consumed before nightfall. Any passers by are at liberty to partake 
