So THE LUSHEI CLANS CHAP.

SaL—Persons captured in raids are called " sal"; their position
is quite different from that of any of the classes of boi. They are
the personal property of their captors, and I am told that when
guns first made their appearance in the hills the western tribes
used to exchange their sal with the eastern tribes for guns,
one strong sal being worth two guns. As a rule only children
and marriageable women were taken captive, and the latter
were disposed of in marriage, the lucky captor acting in loco
pa/rentis and taking the marriage price. The children grew up
in the captor's house as his children, and as a rule were so well
treated that they seldom wished to return to their former
homes.

3. The Lushais have wide views as to matrimony. A young

Marriage. ^^ jg no^ hampered in his choice by any table of prohibited
degrees, nor is his choice confined to any particular family or
clan; in fact, he can practically marry any woman he chooses
except his sister or his mother. There is, however, a certain
amount of prejudice against first cousins on the father's side
marrying, but the reason generally given for this is that when a
girl's parents have to consider the question of her marriage they
naturally try to dispose of her outside the family, in order that
her price may increase the wealth of the family, not merely
transfer it from one brother to another. I have, however, been
told that girls object to marrying their " brothers." Among the
chiefs the desire to marry another chiefs daughter limits the
young man's choice, and marriage among first cousins is more
frequent than among commoners. Marriage among nearly all the
other clans dealt with in this monograph is endogamous as
regards the clan, but exogamous as regards the family. When
we consider the composition of the following of the Thangur
chiefs, we see at once the cause of this difference, for any
restrictions on intermarriage would have interfered with that
fusion of clans which was so necessary for the establishment of
their power.

Regarding the number of his wives also the Lushai has great
latitude; in fact, it is simply a matter of money. Experience
has taught them that two wives in one house is not conducive
to peace, and consequently polygamy is almost entirely confined
to the chiefs, for few others can afford to keep up two establish-