BUYING A WIFE ON THE HIRE-PURCHASE SYSTEM.
The Zulus of South Africa possess some very strange customs, one of them being the buying of their wives. This custom is called 'lobolo' long ago the 'lobolo' was given to the mother of the bride as a compensation or losing her daughter, but now it has degenerated into a mere buying and seizing of cattle This custom as still in force, and the higher the social status of a native, the higher the value of his daughter. When a chief's daughter is sold for marriage, she may be assessed at fifty or sixty head of cattle.
Recently the price has been standardised and is now eleven head of cattle, ten for the father and one for the mother-in-law. The one for the mother-in-law is called ''ingut '' When a girl becomes engaged she must spend a few days at he future husband's kraal to show that she can keep kraal. When she arrives a goat is killed and cooked, and a feast and dance takes place. A bullock is given to her when she goes home as a token that she is acceptable to her prospective husband and his relatives. Sometimes the engagement is broken off after her stay at the kraaal, in which case she takes two bullocks home as compensation It she is acceptable he periodically visits her home and when possible he takes instalments of the lobolo until he feels he has paid enough to ask for her in marriage.
On the appointed day a bullock us killed and gallons of native beer are brewed. Everybody is welcome at the feast, and it is customary to become intoxicated as soon as possible. Then, to dispel the effects everyone dances and sings with astonishing energy, and the proceedings usually finish with a quarrel and a general riot. When the two are married the bridegroom collects more cattle and looks for another wife.
RONALD TRIMBLEHORNE.
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