Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1892 — Curiosities of Matrimony. [ARTICLE]

Curiosities of Matrimony.

There are seventy peoples whose customs forbic the wife’s relatives to hold any communication with the husband, or, conversely, the husband’s relatives and his wife to speak to one another. Yet, in the former case, it is the husband who goes to live with his wife’s parents, and in the latter case the wife who goes to live in her husband’s home with his father and mother. The native Andamanese women have a curious custom. When any of them are left widows the bereaved wife is accustomed to procure the skull of her late husband and carry it about with her suspended by her side. She also uses ( itas a sort of a treasure box, placing in it her money, jewels, or any other valuable articles she may have. It is a law of good society in China that young widows never marry again. Widowhood, therefore, is held in the highest esteem, and the older the widow grows the more agreeable does her position become with the people. Should she reach fifty years, she may, by applying to the emperor, get a sum of money with which to buy a tablet on which is engraved the sum of her virtues. The tablet is placed over the door at the principal entrance to her house. The Zaparos, a tribe of South America, have a curious way of courting. The love-stricken young man goes out hunting, and, on his return, throws his game at the feet of the young lady who has smitten him, together with a sufficient quantity of fuel to cook it. If she takes up the game, lights a fire and commences to cook it, he knows his suit is accepted; but, if not, he turns away, a sadder, U not a wiser, man.