Seventeen years among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo; a ... - Sabrizain.org

MARRIAGE 123
not intend to reside ; that is, if it be decided that the
newly married wife should settle in her husband's house,
then the wedding will take place at her home. If, on the
other hand, the relatives decide that the husband is to
live in the home of his wife, then the wedding takes place
at the house of his parents.
The principal part of the ceremony among the Sea
Dyaks is the fetching
of the bride from her father's to
the bridegroom's house. The women-folk of his village
set out in a boat, gaily decorated with an awning of parti-
coloured sheets, and with streamers and flags flying, to
an accompaniment of gongs and drums, and musical
instruments, to fetch the bride to her future husband's
house.
When the other party arrive at the landing-stage of
the house at which the wedding is to take place, they
walk up to the house—a gaily-dressed crowd—and sit
down in the open veranda, to talk over the future prospects
of the young couple, chewing betel-nut and sireh all the
time. A portion of these chewing ingredients
are care-
fully set aside to be used later on. The Dyak, with his
great love for divination, cannot allow such an occasion
to pass without making some attempt to penetrate into
the secrets of the future.
The company sit down in the long common room of
the Dyak house, and then are brought forward the betelnut,
sireh, etc., specially set aside for the ceremony. A
betel-nut is split into seven pieces by a man supposed to
be lucky in matrimonial matters, and these, together with
the other ingredients of the betel-nut mixture, are all
put in a little basket, which is bound together with red
cloth and laid for a short time upon the open platform
adjoining the house.