Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 July 1880 — Samoan Weddings. [ARTICLE]

Samoan Weddings.

A grea'. wedding wu about to come off in Sunoa, according to the latest news from the islands. A leading chief of Falefa hu been courting Moe, daughter of the High Chief of Apia. As the chief is an old man sad Moe abont nineteen, it hu required the moat strenuous efforts of both families to bring about the match. The Falefa family have carried to Apia over 800 pigs, killed and cooked, and distributed them among the young lady’s relation* . In return for these, the family of the expected b>ide mutt give fine mats, and they have been busily engaged col totting them from allorer the ialand* till the Governor’* house i* half full. A vast deal of ceremony is connected with these weddings. All the maidens fiom Falefa went in a procession to the Governor’* house, each carrying a stick with a bunch of red feathers suspended from the end. At the wedding some member of the Government reads a chapter from the Bible, and then reads s ceremony. The couple being married are seated all the time and join hands toward the close of the ceremony, uin more civilized countries. In this instance the young lady ia amiable and interesting. VV hen the Governor wu aaked why he did not marry Moe to a young chief, he replied that if she did not like her old bosoand, she could run away from him, and it would be no disgrace, while a young husband might take a fancy for another wife, and it would be a shame to the family to have him leave her. A young chief generally hu wives scattered through the islands. Through them he becomes allied to numerous leading families and acquires extended influence, sad when he falls oat with one family he Kto another and finds a wife awaiting Native dance* were taking place nightly, and are apart of the weading festivities. All the young dandies appear on the stage at and the maidens sos the villages assemble on the scene in oostumss like the primitive garb of Eve.

Representatives of most of the railroads in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio held a meeting, at Grand Rapids, July 14th, to confer about lumber rates on southern and southwestern business. No change from the rates adopted at Cincinnati tiro months ago wu made. Reports were general that rates are maintained and business on •busily good. The next meeting of the association will be held at But Saginaw, September 3d, at the Bancroft house. A Berlin dispatch uys: The Herman corrode Victoria, which recently started tor ths West Indies, on reaching Plymouth, wu ordered to Malta, probably in connection, with the naval demonstration of the power*.