MARRIAGE BY PROXY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14853, 2 December 1911, Page 2 (Supplement)

MARRIAGE BY PROXY.

CURIOUS HUSBANDS AND SINGU- •■ - ■-.- — --; LAR WIVES. ' ''■ ''-\ '

In certain provinces of India it is considered unlucky for a woman to be a. third wife. When, j therefore, % a merchant; of Badson, in the United Provinces, who had previously buried two wives, proposed for the hand of a young girl, he was persuaded by the latte>r's parents to first espouse a doll as his third wife, so that misfortune should not fall upon their daughter's head. This he accordingly did, and, having interred his inanimate spouse with much pomp, became for the fourth time a husband by marrying the woman of his choice.

'In parts of Southern Asia a younger daughter is not permitted to wed until her elder sister has procured for herself a. husband. This difficulty, however, can be overcome by the senior uniting herself in marriage to some tree or plant. Generally, and especially where European influence prevails, these bizarre unions do not entail much inconvenience upon the bride, who can, if she will, soVA become a widow, and as such eligible for another and more normal union, by consigning her first husband to the fire. , .

On the. other hand, such marriages are, in regions more remote, -where civilisation, as wo know it, has not penetrated, considered serious affairs, and as such not to be lightly dissolved. Infidelity has before now been punished with death, and in the mountainous districts around Delhi, wives who have been untrue to their selected husbands, such as oaks, fig, or other trees, have been burnt alive. At Nepaul, too, drastic punishment has in more than one instance been meted out to the faithless bride, whose fate lifts been solitary and subterranean confinement in chains for several weeks.

The husband usually selected appears to be the honeysuckle, and such women as are true to the plant are held in the highest honour. Every spring, when the fragrant honeysuckle first puts forth its petals, a great*feast, accompanied by solemn religious ceremonial, is held. At this the wives of the flower take high place, and are. treated with the most profound respect, while their 1 constancy is held up as an example to bo followed by all the youivj women of the district. ',' ; '"*

Flower-pot marriages not infrequently take place in China. When a young woman loses her, fiance by death, she sometimes vows to be true to his memory, and to ratify her oath goes through a. form of marriage with a flowerpot. The ceremony over, she takes up her residence with her dead lover's parents, who are by custom obliged to provide •■ for her needs. Some while since a marriage of this kind took place at Stitshau, when a Chinese) lady, of the upper class, on the death, on the eve of their marriage, of her intended husband, the son of the Vice-Chancellor" of the Imperial Academy; at Pekin, espoused a red vase, j' ...'. v.-, ~.'^ :

An equally singular, and very gruesome, matrimonial custom also prevails in China, in the marriage of the dead. A year or so back a missionary was summoned to read the burial service oyer a dead man. He might, had he cared, have also assisted at a wedding, for no sooner had he re-j tired than a bride for the deceased, in. the corpse of a young girl, was brought upon the scene, and solemnly united to the dead bodv, with which it was afterwards interred. Such marriages, arranged that the departed spirit may not ; wander about companionless in , the world of shades, are, it. is said, not uncommon in Shahsi, where the above strange rites took place. ■ *-■■"■ l -''■'■■.•.' An equally uncanny nuptial ceremony was celebrated seven years back at Kochi, Japan. A young couple were engaged, and the da v appointed for the wedding was at hand, when the girl, for what reason is not stated, committed suicide by drowning. The intended husband was inconsolable at his loss, arid, on the financee's body being recovered, was readily perspaded by the deceased's parents to fulfil the vows that he had sworn. Friends and relations were summoned, and, in their, presence, living bridegroom was united to dead wife. ■,' , ;". : ■'••'" ■■:;" - •

Strange was the marital substitute, accepted not long back at the marriage of a European Government official and a native woman at Samarang. The bridegroom was himself unable to be present at the ceremony which was performed according to local rites, so he i sent his hat, to which m is; permitted by native law, the bride was duly united.