[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

I64 MALEKULA
In the event of a marriage before puberty, the full ceremony
and payment take place at the time of the "legal" marriage,
and no further transactions or rites are performed when the
girl has attained maturity; she. simply leaves her people and
goes to live with her husband.
In the second type of marriage where the bride is a widow,
the power of her father or her brother in controlling her selection
of a spouse is relatively very limited. A man who conceives
a desire for such a woman may speak to her directly, telling her
that he wishes to marry her. Similarly a widow desiring a certain
man may address him directly on the subject, instead of using
her father and the ma.n’s sister as go-betweens. Should the
suitor send an emissary to the widow’s father to ask for her
hand, then before giving his reply the father will always ask his
daughter what her inclinations are, and, ii she has no liking for
the man, will generally refuse the suitor’s advances. The woman
is said to be ni momogh iiliil, one who is no longer innocent and
unenlightened, but having a will and judgment of her ovum.
Her father, therefore, discusses the proposed marriage with
her more or less on terms of equality, though the temptationiofi
a good bargain still retains a strong influence over him. If the
marriage is agreed upon, there is, apparently, no ceremonial;
the pigs are handed over by the bridegroom and the woman
goes home with him.
The change in a woman’s status resulting from her marriage
is recognized socially in Lagalag, by a change in the mode of
addressing her. A man can say mbiiraz/[in to an unmarried
daughter, but the form temgam is always used in speaking to
a married woman.‘
Polygamy
A large number of men have only one wife, while the number
of unmarried men and widowers is considerable. Prominent
men, as, for instance, the sons of former chiefs, may have two
or three wives, but it is only among chiefs themselves that we
ï¬Ånd the extensive polygyny of from eight to twelve or twenty
wives. The reasons given by the natives for the practice of
polygyny are threefold : to have a woman to work in the garden
1 The meaning of these words is unfortunately not rec0tded.—C. W.
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