The history of Sumatra : $b Containing an account of the government, laws, customs and manners of the native inhabitantsMarsden, William
History
The history of Sumatra : $b Containing an account of the government, laws, customs and manners of the native inhabitants
Marsden, William
Natural history -- Indonesia -- Sumatra; Sumatra (Indonesia)
In the ambel anak marriage, according to the institutions of Passummah,
when the father resolves to dismiss the husband of his daughter and send
him back to his dusun the sum for which he can redeem his wife and family
is a hundred dollars: and if he can raise that, and the woman is willing
to go with him, the father cannot refuse them; and now the affair is
changed into a kulo marriage; the man returns to his former tungguan
(settlement or family) and becomes of more consequence in society. These
people are no strangers to that sentiment which we call a regard to
family. There are some families among them more esteemed than others,
though not graced with any title or employment in the state. The origin
of this distinction it is difficult to trace; but it may have arisen from
a succession of men of abilities, or from the reputation for wisdom or
valour of some ancestor. Everyone has a regard to his race; and the
probability of its being extinct is esteemed a great unhappiness. This is
what they call tungguan putus, and the expression is used by the lowest
member of the community. To have a wife, a family, collateral relations,
and a settled place of residence is to have a tungguan, and this they are
anxious to support and perpetuate. It is with this view that, when a
single female only remains of a family, they marry her by ambel anak; in
which mode the husband's consequence is lost in the wife's, and in her
children the tungguan of her father is continued. They find her a husband
that will menegga tungguan, or, as it is expressed amongst the Rejangs
menegga rumah, set up the house again.
The semando marriage is little known in Passummah. I recollect that a
pangeran of Manna, having lost a son by a marriage of this kind with a
Malay woman, she refused upon the father's death to let the boy succeed
to his dignities, and at the same time become answerable for his debts,
and carried him with her from the country; which was productive of much
confusion. The regulations there in respect to incontinence have much
severity, and fall particularly hard on the girl's father, who not only
has his daughter spoiled but must also pay largely for her frailty. To
the northward the offence is not punished with so much rigour, yet the
instances are there said to be rarer, and marriage is more usually the
consequence. In other respects the customs of Passummah and Rejang are
the same in these matters.
RITES OF MARRIAGE.
The rites of marriage, nikah (from the Arabian), consist simply in
joining the hands of the parties and pronouncing them man and wife,
without much ceremony excepting the entertainment which is given on the
occasion. This is performed by one of the fathers or the chief of the
dusun, according to the original customs of the country; but where
Mahometanism has found its way, a priest or imam executes the business.
COURTSHIP.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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