WHOLESALE MARRIAGES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1692, 31 January 1888, Page 2

WHOLESALE MARRIAGES.

In the days of Hyder Ali, and tha ' devastation of the Carnatic several hundred British sailors fell into the clutches of that barbarous old monarch. Such of them as elected to embrace the Mohammedan faith he treated as follows ‘ There was at this time ( says one of them, a number of young girls wbo had been driven with their relations out of the Carnatic when Hyder infested that country. One morning we were ordered to fall into rank and file, when these girls were placed one behind each of us, while we stood gazing at one another, wondering what they were about to de. At last the doorga gave the word, ‘‘To the right about face!” with the addition (in the Moorish language) of “take what is before you.” This, when understood, some did, and some did not; hut the refractory were obliged to comply. Thus they fed their vanity by making our first interview as ludicrous as possible, each being by this means supplied with a piece of furniture, for which, however valuable, we hadueither want nor ambition. When this ceremony was completed, we were ordered back to our ’square, and, on our return with our young black doxies, we had the bazaar, or public market, to pass, where the crowd was so difficult to penetrate as to separate us. This laid the foundation for some serious disputes afterwards, many insisting that the women they had when they reached the square were not the same they had at first. The scene was truly comic, for the girls, when we understood them, which was many months afterwards, had the same views that we had, and were frequently engaged with their tongues on this score long before we could understand the cause of their disputes. Our enemies seemed to enjoy this in a manner that would have done honor to a British theatre. Strange to say, these odd unions in almost every case turned out happily—so happily that some of the tars actually preferred captivity tobeing separated from their wives and children.”