It is due to this that many of the women prefer to remain single and free to choose. Those who undergo the frightful ordeal are never molested, we are told. Indeed, it is said that two out of every five women succumb after such an experience. Preparations are in progress for the ceremony, which is to take place this evening, and the bride is even now adorning herself with feathered finery and besmearing her dusky body with oil and paint. After night has settled down, all the natives repair to a clearing where the drums are calling and a huge fire is built. The occasion is one of merriment and the ceremony continues far into the night.
The day that the wady is ready the natives gather in the shade for the express purpose of becoming thoroughly and most comfortably inebriated. As the liquor begins to take effect they dance and sing. While they dance more wady is given them, until they are overcome and perforce must stagger away and lie down. Soon they fall asleep, not to waken until late the next day, when they experience the most depressing of “mornings after.” By this time the wady is all gone, and, too, there is no ice-water! After a wady party of this kind the men do not fully recover for days, for the stuff is almost paralyzing in its effect.
It seems that while the wady party was in progress something occurred that aroused the ire of one or two of the older women of the kampong. The visitors who came to partake of the cup that cheers partook of something else, not on the program, and this occasioned a great deal of discussion, conducted mainly by the wife of the injured party.
A very fine stone club turned up missing, so to speak, and the family wealth was thus greatly depleted. While the loss is of moment, the men are inclined to pass the matter over, but this is not the case with the women. Things have been going too smoothly of late, and they desire some real diversion. The feast just held has served but to whet their appetite for excitement and they demand that the men go to the other kampong and either secure the stolen club, which took so many weary hours in the making, or collect other indemnity. At the threat that all the women will hold themselves aloof until the demand is obeyed, the men go on what purports to be a friendly visit and actually do return two days later with the stolen club.