To next page
Ch'en Yuan-Ching: Shih-Lin Kuang-Chi
(late12-13thcentury) (Sung encyclopedia)
--------------------------------------------------
Taken from: Neville Chittick: East Africa and the orient.
(under the heading Barbaria)
When a marriage is to be arranged the bride's family announces the agreement by cutting off the tail of a cow in calf as gesture of good faith. The period of betrothal starts from the day when the tail is cut, and the marriage can be consummated only after the cow has calved. The grooms family must respond to the cutting of the cow's tail as a pledge of the date of betrothal by bringing a severed human tail to the house of the bride. The human tail which serves as a betrothal gift is the male organ. When it arrives, the bride's family, rejoicing, welcomes it with music and parades through the street for seven days after which the groom enters the bride's house and is married to her and they become one family. Each marriage deprives a man of his live. Such is the custom of mutual rivalry among families wishing to display the fortitude and courage of their sons in law, without which no girls family would ever consent to her marriage.