"One afternoon I was walking along the banks of the beautiful river which flows through the suburbs of the city of Semhee, and saw a number of boys and girls, also men and women, all enjoying themselves swimming. They would swim awhile and then come out, stand or sit on the bank of the river for another while. Sometimes there would be seen several hundred persons of all ages on the banks of the river. They no more thought about their respective natures than they did about the number of hairs on their head. Among those I saw on the banks of the river was this very young man and young lady who were engaged to be married. They were standing up side by side ready to take a plunge in the river, and in they went and swam about very gracefully. While they were in the water they both saw me standing on the bank opposite to where they had stood on the other. They swam to where I was, and came out of the water to me, and we had a little chat. "If the young lady was invited to stay over night at the young man's house, she would take her bath with the other members of the family in the morning, and if the young man received an invitation to stay all night at the home of the young lady, he, in the morning, would take his bath with the members of her family. "About a month after the engagement the two were married. The city Semhee employs four persons who can perform the marriage ceremony, two men and two women. They were married at the home of the young man. A lady came to perform the ceremony. She told the couple to stand up and take hands, and then she asked the young man--calling him by name--if he would have this woman--calling her by name--to be his wife, and he answered, 'Yes.' Then she asked the young lady--calling her by her name--would she have this man--calling him by his name--as her husband, and she answered, 'Yes.' Then she said: 'In the presence of these witnesses I declare you to be man and wife.' The two then signed a document stating they were man and wife, which was put on record, and that ended the ceremony. They were very happy, for each one found in the other a true, loving companion, and they were one intellectually and spiritually. "As women are engaged in the professions, in business, and perform all kinds of service as men do, receiving the same compensation, they are just as financially independent as men are, and, therefore, have no other motive for marrying than that of true, pure love, finding in each other a true intellectual and spiritual companion. Of children they have few, for they believe in quality, and not quantity.