is concluded by the man binding two iron anklets on each of the girl's legs.540
with the words: "May our forefathers who have gone East look after this girl in her married life." He closes his eyes in order to avoid looking on the ancestors as they take the offerings. The rite[35] is concluded by the man binding two iron anklets on each of the girl's legs.
The girl is then escorted to her husband's home by an aged female relative. On arrival she is given a chicken and hoe by her husband as an inducement to her to enter the compound. She must be given another hoe before she enters his hut, another before she sits down, another before she partakes of food, and two before she permits him to have sexual relations. Before she washes next morning she must be presented with a chicken. Each morning for a period of a month she is smeared with red earth and oil by female relatives of her husband. During this month she does no work of any kind, the intention being to make her contented with her new surroundings. She is given the best of fare.
There are certain points about the exchange form of marriage which deserve attention. The first point is that a girl cannot be used as an exchange by her mother's male relatives if her mother was herself an exchange wife, because the children of an exchange wife belong to their father's and not to their mother's group. Vice versa, a girl cannot be used by her paternal relatives as an exchange wife if her mother had been married under the purchase system, for in this case the children belong to the mother's group. Secondly, a father cannot use his own daughter as an exchange wife for himself[36]
, even if the girl's mother had been married under the exchange system. Thirdly [37]
, a man may not elope with an exchange wife. But elopement with wives married under the purchase system is permitted and is a regular practice.
Children born under the exchange system of marriage reside with their father. and inherit from him.
(b) Marriage by Purchase. If a man sees a girl in the market who takes his fancy and finds that she is free to marry he buys some beer and calls the girl aside. He ascertains from her the names of her relatives, and if one of them had accompanied the girl to market he invites that one to join him in drinking beer.1 The girl's guardian leaves the girl and young man to talk and drink.
1In drinking beer it is the Mambila custom for two friends or acquaintances to drink simultaneously from the same calabash.