ABSTRACT
The Chinese say that marriages among those of the same ancestral name would’ “confound the human relations.” Generally, before the birth of the children, something valuable, as a head-dress, or rings for wrists, are exchanged by the families, as proof of the betrothal. When a girl has been betrothed, but her affianced dies before their marriage, the term broken thread is used in speaking of the matter, just as though the feet of the parties had been tied together by a thread, which had become broken. Sometimes a girl who has been betrothed to a man who dies before the marriage-day resolves to take her own life by public hanging, in view of his death, rather than be engaged again in marriage, or live unmarried. Formerly certain officers of Government, if the report is trustworthy, used to sanction the self-destruction of widows, not only by their presence on the occasion, but also by their taking a part in the worship.
