The Sulu Archipelago and its people, by Sixto Y. Orosa ...

86 SULU ARCHIPELAGO AND ITS PEOPLE

provision for appeal on the part of the wife. But as long
as a man can support his wife, he may not break the
marital relations except for a good cause. Nevertheless,
some womaen are known to have forsaken their husbands without authority. If a woman procures a
divorce, she must pay back double the sum that was
bestowed upon her at mrarriage, and she may not marry
again within three months. A divorced woman is not
disgraced. She tries to get married again as promptly
as possible, and the husband tries to do the same,
especially if he has no other wives.
The sultan and his priests have now been shorn of
much of their former power to try divorce and elopement and other "ecclesiastical" cases. These have gradually been placed under the jurisdiction of regular
courts of justice.
FUNERAL RITES
When a man is dying, his head is directed toward the
north, his face toward Mecca. Then he confesses to a
priest, who thereafter reads several prayers. As soon
as the man has breathed his last, the bod# is put in a
sitting posture and the abdomen is massaged downward. The body is placed flat in bed and given a full
bath with soap and water, then dusted with powder.
Macerated guava leaves are smeared all over the body,
which is again cleaned with water, placed in a sitting
posture for the second time, and anointed with lemon
water. Only the wealthier Mohammedans observe
carefully this elaborate procedure. Among the poorer
people, washing the body with clear water suffices.
After the body has been prepared so far, the people eat
around it. The readiness wit wih cholera and other