Brides Join The

Price Spiral

By Daika

EVEN the natives of certain areas of the Central Highlands of New Guinea are starting to feel the in creased cost of living.

Recently, one of the lads who was desirous of taking to himself a lawfully wedded spouse, was faced with that age old problem, bride price, which is a more-or-less continual headache to native, Administration and Mission alike because of the seemingly endless argu ments it causes amongst the contracting parties.

As the prospective husband was young, and had not been working for very long, he had to get his family and relatives to assist him meet the agreed price.

The price paid for the bride was; 22 gold lip (Mother of Pearl) shells; four pigs; seven knives (15 in.); three steel tomahawks; ten bird-of-paradise plumes; four tambu shell head decorations; six stone axes.

There was also a large quantity of trade beads, and 35/- in hard cash handed over. When asked where he was able to obtain the items, the boy ex plained that he had worked for trade goods instead of money for a year, and when he later joined the Administration he was able to purchase various items from trade stores.

There were, however, other incidentals to rounding off the marriage contract, and, as well as the above, the family had to weigh-in with green snail shell, native salt, and no less than 51 stone axes.

This is a sort of bride-on-time-payment —the bridegroom will have to “back” these goods in due course, and he will be in debt to his elders for a considerable time. There is a parallel between our Highland friend and the lad in the Bible who worked seven years for Rachel.

The happy couple. The bride is wearing a special head-dress for the occasion, plus some of the gold-lip pearl shell. We remind those who see a hazard in those tusks and feel the bride groom was exploited that “Autre pays, autre moeurs"—and the groom is no Adonis, either.