In Bali Island girls. are stolen away by their lovers, who sometimes surprise them alone, or overpower them by the way, and carry them off with dishevelled hair and tattered garments to the woods. When brought back from thence, recon ciliation is effected with enraged friends by a certain compensation price being paid to her relatives.
In the Korea, when a man marries, he mounts on horseback, attended by his friends, and, having ridden about the town, stops at the bride's door, where he is received by her relations, who then carry her to his house, and the ceremony is complete.
Amongst the Australians, the bride is carried off by force.
Japanese, of all classes, look upon their wives as upon a faithful servant. A Japanese is never known to beat his wife. It is a custom amongst some Japanese to take a woman a few weeks on trial before deciding upon whether to marry her or not. The Japanese marriage ceremony is very simple. The bride and bridegroom drink wine with each other three times, exchanging cups with each other every time, in the presence of a few select friends, after which the young lady gets her teeth blackened, and she is married for better and for worse. Amongst the Muhammadan women of India;also, the custom is followed of blackening the bride's teeth with missee on marriage ; women never use it before their wedding-day, and it is by the black mark in the crevices between the teeth, occasioned by the application of the missee, that a Muhammadan woman can be observed to be married or not. With the same object, Malay women have their front teeth filed down.
Amongst the Siah-Posh Kafir, the marriage ceremonies consist merely of procuring two twigs or rods of the respective height of the bride and bridegroom, and tying them together. These are presented to the couple, who preserve them so long as they live together. If desirous to sepa-' rate, the twigs are broken, and the marriage is dissolved.
With the Buddhist races of Tibet and Burma, marriage is readily contracted, and the tie as easily broken. In Burma, marriage and concubinage are regarded as civil contracts, and all breaches are punished by fines ; seduction is also punishable by a fine. Girl marriages, as in India, are
unknown in Burma, and a Burmese girl is courted and won. The period of the day be tween eight in the evening and midnight is called courting-time, during which the girls receive five or six bachelor admirers, who act as a check to each other. This courting-time is called Loo-byo-lai-thee-kala in Burmese. A lamp placed in their casement intimates that they are at home. An old bachelor (loo-byo-hoing) or old maid (apyo-hoing) is unknown out of the ascetics of the monasteries. Burmese women wear as a lower garment a gay-coloured cloth, which just wraps the lower part of the body, and opens at every step, disclosing the left thigh.
In China marriage is universal, and such a being as an old maid or an old bachelor is unknown. With the Hindus, Muhammadans, and Chinese, parents choose wives for their sons, as was cus tomary with the early Hebrews. (Genesis xxi. 21, xxxviii. 6 ; and Deuteronomy xxii. 16:) A Chinaman cannot take as a wife a woman who bears the same family or clan name as him self. If he do so, the marriage is null ; neither can he marry his cousin on his mother's side, nor his step-daughter, nor his mother's sister. No lady can marry until she is fourteen years of age. Play-actors, policemen, boatmen, and slaves must marry into their own respective classes. The Chinese attach great importance to marriage. It is not considered respectable for a widow to marry again. Where a betrothed girl loses her affianced husband, public opinion regards it as meritorious for her to abstain from marriage. Testimonials are often voted by the people to commemorate such instances of fidelity; and where a widowed betrothed girl chooses to die volun tarily, her memory is held in the highest honour. Nevertheless, women, even as first wives, do not take a high place in families, although as mothers their condition is vastly improved. They are in theory monogamists, but polygamy is common amongst the well-to - do, though rather in the form of concubinage. Nunneries of Buddhists are formed in China, but the inmates are not respected • they are admitted after 16 years of age, and their heads are shaven.