Sketches of Our Life at SarawakMcDougall, Henriette
History
Sketches of Our Life at Sarawak
McDougall, Henriette
McDougall, Henriette, 1817-1886 -- Travel -- Malaysia -- Sarawak; Sarawak (Malaysia) -- Description and travel
This is a long letter, but as I am on the subject of weddings, I
may as well tell you about a Chinese wedding we had the other
day at our house. The bridegroom was Akiat, a carpenter, about
six feet two inches high. He was dressed in whity-brown silk,
which made him look like a tall spectre; and the bride was Quey
Ginn, a fat, dumpy little girl of sixteen, the Chinese deacon's
daughter, and one of my scholars. She did not choose her old
husband of fifty years, but her parents arranged it, and Akiat
paid one hundred dollars for his wife. I went to see her the day
before the wedding, and she showed me all her clothes and
ornaments; but I thought she did not look as if she cared for
them. So I whispered, "Are you happy, child?" "No, not at all,"
burst out Quey Ginn. "I don't want to be married and leave my
parents." Whereupon I could not help taking her in my arms and
comforting her, telling her to be a good wife, and she would
soon learn to be content. She has been to visit me since her
marriage, and I am amused to see that she is quite a little
woman, instead of the shy girl she used to be; and, whereas as a
girl she was never allowed to be seen in the streets, or even to
go to church, she now does exactly as she likes, and, I am happy
to say, comes regularly to church. These people were all sincere
Christians. Akiat was the Chinese churchwarden, and, as papa
esteemed them very highly, he allowed the breakfast to take
place at our house.
I had a cake made for the occasion, which Quey Ginn cut up with
much pleasure. The ring in it fell to Mr. Zehnder's share, which
amused him also. Good-bye.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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