FASCICULI MALATENSES 
75 
few rich Malays in Perak can afford a greater degree of luxury than their 
compeers of the Siamese States, and so far are the Malays from respecting 
the celibate ideals of the Buddhists that they regard multiple marriage as a 
virtue rather than a vice, saying that a man who has many wives is 1 as brave 
as a tiger while they stigmatize the monks of the yellow robe as 4 lazy beasts, 
who do no work and will not marry/ A large proportion of the few 
polygamists among the peasantry are pilgrims who have sealed their piety 
by a journey to Mecca, whence also they may bring home a Soudanese or 
Arabian concubine. 
Before the wedding takes place the bride is sometimes submitted to a 
Mdafty who reports on her virginity, pretending to base the diagnosis on the 
way in which the girl's hair grows on her forehead and the shape of her 
breasts, but probably having other means of investigation. The woman also 
foretells whether the marriage will be prolific by means of palmistry, and, in 
the case of the bridegroom, discovers, by the same method, whether sterility will 
ever be due to him. After the ceremony the bride and bridegroom are sup¬ 
posed to lie together for at least three nights without intercourse, but this 
restriction is not necessary in the case of old men who are not married for 
the first time. 
I do not propose to deal with the marriage ceremony at length, seeing 
that I have not had the opportunity myself of seeing a complete wedding, 
which differs, so far as we could learn, in no important detail from those 
described by Mr. W. W. Skeat and others in different parts of the Peninsula. 
Both among the Malays and the Siamese of the Patani States the essential 
part of the ceremony, from a symbolical standpoint, is the performance in 
common by the bride and bridegroom of certain domestic actions, such as 
eating rice. In many marriages the act instanced is the only one performed 
in public, while in others the couple bathe together, or rather are drenched 
with water by their friends, are seated on the same couch, and have their 
finger nails stained with henna. To make the marriage legal the presence of 
an imam or kali is necessary in the case of Mahommedans, while the Siamese, 
whose ceremony has otherwise become assimilated to the Malay, visit the 
nearest w&t y or monastery, to receive the blessings of the monks on their 
union. 
In Jalor neither Malay nor Siamese bridegrooms wear silk or gold at their 
wedding. 
After the wedding the bride and bridegroom are expected to take up their 
abode in the house of the bride’s parents; but the custom has now become 
largely ceremonial and, as a rule, they only stay a fortnight, after which they are 
