If Any Man Have A
Daughter Who Dies Before Marriage, And Another Man Have Had A Son Also Die
Before Marriage, The Parents Of The Two Arrange A Grand Wedding Between
The Dead Lad And Lass.
And marry them they do, making a regular contract!
And when the contract papers are made out they put
Them in the fire, in
order (as they will have it) that the parties in the other world may know
the fact, and so look on each other as man and wife. And the parents
thenceforward consider themselves sib to each other, just as if their
children had lived and married. Whatever may be agreed on between the
parties as dowry, those who have to pay it cause to be painted on pieces
of paper and then put these in the fire, saying that in that way the dead
person will get all the real articles in the other world.[NOTE 3]
Now I have told you all about the manners and customs of the Tartars; but
you have heard nothing yet of the great state of the Grand Kaan, who is
the Lord of all the Tartars and of the Supreme Imperial Court. All that I
will tell you in this book in proper time and place, but meanwhile I must
return to my story which I left off in that great plain when we began to
speak of the Tartars.[NOTE 4]
NOTE 1. - The cudgel among the Mongols was not confined to thieves and such
like.
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