THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 
119 
captor holding on to a leg or an arm. This re¬ 
presents the first act in the comedy. During the 
second act she is rubbed over with grease, and con¬ 
fined in an empty hut, without food, for twenty-four 
hours, while the intending bridegroom enters upon a 
spirited bargain with the parents until her precise 
value in cattle is arranged. Directly the beasts are 
paid over, the marriage is legally settled, and the 
third act introduces the reward of the four faithful 
abductors, too barbaric and immoral in character to 
admit of any detailed description. Throughout all the 
tribes in this part of the country the first three acts 
of a marriage ceremony vary but slightly with those 
I have just described; but as couples are not securely 
united until after a lapse of four months (for at any 
time within that period the husband may, if disap¬ 
pointed with his bargain, return the bride to her 
sorrowing parents, and receive back in exchange all 
the cattle he paid for her), the fourth act does not 
take place until after that period of probation. Then 
a big feast and a drunken carouse, to which all the 
husband’s friends are invited, is evidence that the 
marriage in question has proved to be “no failure.” 
Finally, “free love” is an understood thing, and the 
wife is allowed to take to herself as many lovers as 
she may choose, provided each pays her lawful spouse 
an indemnity. 
The Wa-moci have a strong belief in omens, and 
especially in those-provided by the entrails of goats 
and bullocks. Mandara is held in high repute as a 
