e usually intimate friends, and are thus
led to offer their children to each other for intermarriage. There
is a known case of a girl of 16 or 17 years of age, who was what
I can only call betrothed to the unborn son of a chief. A curious
element in this case was that at the date, prior to the birth of
the proposed husband, of what I call the betrothal, the price for
the girl was actually paid--a thing which is never done till the
marriage--and that, as I was most solemnly assured, the living girl
and the unborn boy were in fact regarded, not merely as betrothed,
but as actually married, and that, when the boy died, which he did in
infancy, long before marital relationship between them was possible,
the girl was regarded as being a widow. I could not ascertain what
happened as regards the price which had been paid for the girl. A
couple betrothed in childhood are not subject to any restrictions
as to meeting and mutual companionship, nor is there any mutual
avoidance, nor any increased probability, based on their betrothal,
of immorality between them; though in the more usual case of betrothal
between children of different communities they in ordinary course
are not likely to be constantly seeing each other.

A young man will speak of his sweetheart, present or prospective,
as his _ojande_, which means his "flower"; and this is so even if he
does not yet know her; and, when asked where he is going, he will
reply that he is going to seek an _ojande_. If he is not already
betrothed, and is matrimonially inclined, he has various expedients
for accomplishing his desires. A boy who wants to marry, and does not
know where to seek a wife, will sometimes light a fire in the bush,
or better still in an open space (not in the village), when the air is
still, and wait until a slight breeze blows the flame or smoke a little
in some one direction; and he will then select a community or village
which lies in that direction as the spot in which to seek a wife.

A boy will often carry in a small bag (this does not refer to the
special small charm bag already described) some pieces of wood and
stone, and will rub a piece of tobacco between two of these, and send
this tobacco to the girl of his choice through a female relative of
hers or some other friend; and he believes that in some mysterious way
this will draw her heart towards him, and make her accept him. The
pieces of wood and stone need not be of any particular kind; but he
wil