MARRIAGE

The ceremony concluded with a long prayer (maweda) performed by the priest towards kangin; a combination of Sanskrit formulas recited silently, accompanied by swift and intricate gestures of the hands, alternated with ringing a bell and flinging away various sorts of flowers. After the purification the banquet was served and the guests spent the rest of the night watching plays and dances.

The woman “ follows “ the man and lives in his home. Either the eldest or the youngest son inherits the paternal home, but other sons usually build a house of their own on an empty lot given by the village to a newly-wed couple. The first duty of the man is then to build a temporary sanggah kemulan, his family shrine, made of bamboo and thatch, which is replaced later on by a more solid structure of brick and wood, when the old one has fallen into decay.

It may happen, however, that a man commits nyebuhin, going to live in the house of the girl with whom he is infatuated, A man who runs after a girl in this manner is disgraced; he loses all rights to the paternal home and lives as a servant of the girl's family. The opposite may also happen and a ngungahin marriage takes place, when a girl, supposedly bewitched, forces herself upon a man.

Ordinarily there is at home a strong feeling of equality, of politeness, and friendly frankness in the relationship between husband and wife, and the woman is by no means the proverbial slave of Oriental countries. She is well aware of her rights, she manages the house and the finances of the family, and at tit she even keeps her husband.

We have seen that the majority the women of average class work and have their own incomes. They own their clothes, their jewellery, and the household utensils, as well as the pigs and chickens of the house. The man course, owns the house itself, the ricefields, the cattle, and implements, and inheritance is invariably along the male line The woman has absolute rights over her income and owns share of the money earned by their combined efforts, although the husband is the administrator of this money.In general the man is the acknowledged master of the household and represent the family before the law and before the gods, who are his c ancestors.

But once a month, during menstrual time, a wife's life is w happy one; to her physical handicap is added the powerful taboo of pollution (sebel) which then falls upon her: she is forbidden to go into the temple, into the kitchen or the granary, or to well. She may not prepare food nor, of course, make offering participate at feasts, and the wife of a high priest may not e speak to her exalted husband.

Noman would dream of sleep in the same room with a woman in this condition; the aver man moves into the house of a friend, but the wife of a nobleman has to look for a place to sleep, far from her husband. In palace of a prince there is often a secluded compartment w1 his wives retire while menstruating. When the period is period woman has to be purified again with sprinkling of holy water fore she can resume normal life. Perhaps because the Balinese believe that a man can be bewitched, losing all his will to woman who can anoint his head with menstrual blood, they h such mortal horror of being near a woman during the time menstruation.

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