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Marriage Customs on Aneityum

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 21, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 3.

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Marriage Customs on Aneityum

It is said that the substitute for the marriage ring on the island of Aneityum, New Hebrides, was the “marriage rope,” put round the neck of the bride. This she wore all her life, and when her husband died she was strangled with it by his nearest relative. The Rev. John Inglis, who began his work there in 1852, reported that there was not a widow on the island, nor any word in the language for widow. The law demanded that on the death of her husband the wife be strangled, and her body cast into the sea with his.—Missionary Review.