the mouth of the girl, and she does the same for the
man. At this happy conclusion of the affair all the people around
give a great shout. Sometimes the girl leaps to her feet and runs
away pursued by her husband, who calls after her to stop. This she
does after a little, and the two return together; or they may take
a bamboo tube used for carrying water and set off to the river to
bring water for the others to drink, thus performing in unison the
first act of labor of their married life.

I was fortunate enough to witness a ceremony where the exchange of food
was the important feature. In this instance a piece of brown bread
which I was about to throw away served as the wedding cake. It seems
that the girl had been contracted by her parents when very young to
a man old enough to be her father, and when the time for the wedding
arrived she refused to have anything to do with it. For two years she
had resisted entreaties and threats, displaying more force of will than
one would expect from a Negrito girl of 15. The man had paid a large
price for her--200 pesos, he said--and the girl's parents did not
have it to return to him. It was suggested that if we made her some
presents it might induce her to yield. She was presented with enough
cloth for two or three camisas and sayas, a mirror, and a string of
beads, and she finally gave an unwilling assent to the entreaties of
her relatives, and the ceremony was performed in the manner already
described. At the conclusion a yell went up from the assembly, and
I, at the request of the capitan, fired three pistol shots into the
air. Everybody seemed satisfied except the poor girl, who still wept
furtively over her new treasures. Some days later, however, when I
saw her she appeared to be reconciled to her fate, and was happy in
the possession of more valuables than any other woman in the rancheria.

Head Ceremony

In the southern rancherias a bamboo platform is erected 20 or 30
feet high, with a ladder leading up to it from the ground. On the
day fixed for the marriage the groom, accompanied by his parents,
goes to the house of the bride and asks for her. They are usually
told that she has gone away, but some small gifts are sufficient
to have her produced, and the whole party proceeds to the place of
marriage. Here bride and groom mount the ladder--some accounts say
the bride is carried up by her prospective father-in-law.

An old man of the tribe, and, if the platform