the match, and soon thereafter a feast is prepared to which friends of both families are invited.  At this feast the price to be paid for the girl and the time of marriage are agreed upon, and at least partial payment is made.  As is the case with the neighboring tribes, a part of the value of this gift is returned.  Following the agreement the boy enters the service of his fiancee’s father and for a year or more lives as a member of the family.  Even after the marriage a considerable amount of service is expected from him at the time of planting, harvesting, or building.

The marriage ceremony proper follows a feast, and consists of the young couple feeding each other with rice and drinking from a common cup.

Should anything occur to prevent the marriage, after the payment for the girl has been made, the gifts must be returned or service equal to their value must be rendered.

Unfaithfulness on the part of the woman seems to be the one cause for a separation and this is uncommon, for unless her admirer purchases her for a sum equal to the amount her husband spent in obtaining her, the divorced woman remains as a slave in the home of her former husband.

Polygamy is permitted and is quite common, but a man may not take a second wife until a child has been born to the first.  In addition to his wives a man may have as many concubines as he can afford to purchase.

It is said to be a grave offense for a man to embrace a married woman, or even to touch the breasts, elbows, or heels of any woman he does not intend to marry.  An unmarried woman who permits such familiarities is considered as good as married.  Despite this assertion, the writer knows of several cases where young people openly lived together without being considered married, and later the parents arranged marriages between these girls and other suitors.

According to several informants, incest is punished by the sacrifice of the guilty parties.  They are tied to a tree with their hands drawn backward around the trunks and are then speared to death.  This seems to be the one and only occasion when human sacrifice is practiced by members of this tribe.

SICKNESS AND DEATH.

When a person is seriously ill a ballyan is summoned and she, after securing prepared rice, betel-nuts, and a live chicken, enters into communication with the spirits.  First she converses with the dead father or other deceased relative of the sick person and requests his aid in effecting a cure, next she presents food to Diwata and implores his aid, and finally calls upon the asuang to whom she offers the live fowl on the condition that they will cease trying to injure the patient.  Having thus done all in her power to influence the spirits she may administer some simple remedy, after which she begins to dance contra-clockwise, around a bamboo pole on which leaves and betel-nut have been hung.[1]

[1] This ceremony usually takes place in the house, but if the man was taken ill in the forest or in his field it may be conducted there.