The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

THE SOCIAL SYSTEM 71
case the family continues to belong to the lower
class.
The members of each of these classes marry
in nearly all cases within their own class. The
marriages of the young people of the upper class
are carefully regulated. Although they are allowed
to choose their partners according to the inscrutable
dictates of personal affinities, their choice is limited
by their elders and the authority of the chief. Many
of them marry members of neighbouring villages,
while the other classes marry within their own
village.
A youth of the upper class, becoming fond of
some girl of the middle class, and not being allowed
to marry her (although this is occasionally permitted),
will live with her for a year or two. Then,
when the time for his marriage arrives (it having
perhaps been postponed for some years after being
arranged, owing to evil omens, or to lack of means or
of house accommodation), he may separate from his
mistress, leaving in her care any children born of
their union, and perhaps making over to her some
property—as public opinion demands in such cases.
She may and usually will marry subsequently a
man of her own class, but the children born of her
irregular union may claim and may be accorded
some of the privileges of their father's class. In
this way there is formed in most villages a class of
persons of ambiguous status, debarred from full
membership in the upper class by the bar-sinister.
Such persons tend to become wholly identified with
the upper or middle class according to the degrees
of their personal merits.
Marriages are sometimes contracted between
persons of the middle and slave classes. In the
case of a young man marrying a slave woman, the
owners of the woman will endeavour to persuade
him to live with her in their room, when he becomes