QUEER MARRIAGE CUSTOM.

Observer, Volume 9, Issue 530, 16 February 1889, Page 14

QUEER MARRIAGE CUSTOM.

AN extremely handy custom among the Persians, which would hardly be popular in this country, hewever, is the temporary marriage. A Persian couple may enter into honourable matrimony for any specified period of time — a day, a week, a month, sis months or longer. A priest and a written contract are required, as in the usual jform, and a dowry and present are be* stowed. Whether the transaction is entered upon for a matter of days or years, at its termination each one goes their way free of all further obligations toward each other. This form of marriage is indulged in largely by travellers and men whose vocations take them from place to place. A mixed party of travellers— men, women and children — arrive at a village. The susceptible heart of one of the gentlemen is touched by the charms of some rustic Delle. The village priest is summoned forthwith, and the young lady's father invited to the caravanserai. ' I wish to be united in matrimouy to your honoured daughter, the light of Mohammed, oh, my father, ' says the smitten traveller. ' Inshallah.' ' Bismillah !' returns the parent, ' for how long ? ' For three weeks, oh, my father,' says tb.ej traveller, ' and I will make the settlement ten tomans — five tomans down and five upon our return from MesLied, the holy, three weeks hence, when your daughter shall be returned, thrice blessed from having made with us a pilgrimage to Imam Eiza's sanctuary. 'What! ten tomans — pooh, pooh!' screams the father derisively, and making little of the advantages of the pilgrimage to Meshed. 'My daughter is a jewel and the belle of the village. The settlement must be 100 tomans, cash down.' The prospective bridegroom and the father of the young lady in the case now avgue and squabble for probably an hour, at the end of which time they compromise on 30 tomans and three-quarters. The priest draws up a marriage contract then and there, which the traveller and the bride's parents sign. In it is stated the exact terms of the marriage, the amount of the settlement, and the time the contract is to expire. The priest is fed, the settlement money paid over to the father, and the blushing bride, who has had nothing to say in the matter whatever, ig handed over to her husband. She is mounted on an ass or bundled into a kajaveh and accompanies the party on to Meshed. Three weeks later the travellers halt at the same village on their return. The bride of three weeks slides off her donkey, kisses her husband's hand and returns to her parent's roof. She is now a charming young widow, and possesses 30 tomans and three-quarters, beside an extra toman or two presented by her husband at parting if he has been pleased with her conduct as a spouse. With this snug sum and the additional charms of her new condition, she possesses herself of some worthy young peasant's heart, and settles down for life. It sometimes happens, however, that the wife takes advantages of the temporary marriage to steal away her husband's heart, and then at tha old home a new marriage contract is drawn up and she becomes his lifelong helpmate.