AGAR CUSTOMS. 337 are sufficient, and if the people are poor, double the number of sheep and goats will suffice. Rich people will only give their daughters in marriage to men who possess cattle, and so they form a kind of clan, bound together both by relationship and similarity of interests, to aid each other in case of any attack.

If a man wishes to marry, he speaks in the first place to the father of his choice, and after a long discussion, at which all the relations of the bride, from the grandfather to the female cousins, take part, the price which is first asked—a hundred cows—(I speak of well-to-do people) is at last reduced to about forty, of which each of the relations receives a share. As soon as the price has been paid, the male relations of the bridegroom ornament themselves with aprons of leopard.

skins, all kinds of fantastic head-dresses, and weapons, and accompany the well-anointed bride, with song and dance, from her father’s hut to that of the bridegroom, where a feast is held, for which the bridegroom provides an ox and the necessary beverages. The next day the bride’s father gives a feast, on which occasion, as an act of generosity, he usually returns ten of the cows paid by the bridegroom for the bride.

The Agar never permit the girls of their tribe to marry into another tribe, but they themselves sometimes marry Mittu, Sofi, and Beli girls, who can be obtained rather cheaply in exchange for iron shovels or goats. It often happens that a young man who is too poor to provide the requisite number of cattle agrees with a girl to elope. If, however, they do so, they are obliged to hide themselves carefully, for should they be caught by their relations, the man, unless by any means he manages to ransom himself, would be immediately killed, and the girl taken back into her father’s house, to be subsequently sold at a diminished value. As arule, however, matters are arranged by the relations on either side to their mutual satisfaction. Repudiation on account of sterility occurs but rarely, and in such a case half the cattle paid for the girl has to be returned. It is more common on account of adultery, in which case the guilty party is condemned to death or to the repayment of eight cows. Hvery woman has the right, should she be repudiated, to take all her children with her, and to take a milch cow for Be