STRANGE WOOING CUSTOMS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1847, 31 July 1907, Page 22

STRANGE WOOING CUSTOMS

Among a certain tribe in Scythia a maiden's status in married life depended on her muscle, and was all settled in advance. When a lover made overtures for her hand he had to engage her in single combat. If he was victor he led her off her master and monarch for life. If he was vanquished she led him off, her husband slave. If thus type of equal rights, this fighting chance, is not satisfactory to the women, they , t as a quaint chronicler tells us, the. dear sifters have a fearsome power in their hands. "When a young woman falls m love with a man she goes to has father s house and reveals her passion m most pathetic eloquence, promising rigid obedience if he will take her to wife. Should the stubborn creature offer any excuse she tells him she w ill ne\ er i , .om 1 • ” endr s. Then she takes up her lodgings and remains there, and a game of endurance begins. If he continues obstinate his ease becomes really distressing, for the church is on her side, and to turn her out would provoke all her kindred to avenge her honour. The poor fellow must take her or fly until she is otherwise disposed of " The Lapland sister is approached by proxies and presents. Brandy ranks above diamonds, and ceremonies are opened with a high old Arctic spree. The "lady" never appears in the early pari of the negotiations, but when she is finally introduced and acquainted with the situation, she can either consent by silence or close all negotiations' by dashing the suitor’s gifts to the ground. In Greenland married life is no woman's paradise. While the husband lives the wife is knocked about like a punching bag, amd when he dies, and there is no one bo find her fish and raiment, she is allowed to starve by the chivalric gentlemen. Naturally, then, when some ardent swain comes wooing by proxy, and the negotiations aie dosed between the parents, she has to be dragged to her new abode. Ulten the doomed creature attempts to starve herself in the mountains when she first learns of her fate, hut she never fails to cut off her hair, a 'despairing sign that she wants to die an old maid.

The Roumanian naval and mercantile fleet is the only one which uses petroleum fuel exclusively. ,°f e . • £? more than <£4o on each trip owing to the use of this fuel. A feurpage-page manusenft of tlie violin sonata in Beethoven's own handwriting, and the only musical manuscript he ever signed, has been bought by a [Florentine collector for JesLSo.