The Tarok People are majorly found in Langtang North, Langtang South and Wase Local governemnts areas of PlateauState Nigeria. Their girls are known to be hard working, and If you end up falling in Love with one them, these are the requirements and the dowry needed to Marry any Tarok lady.

When you meet a Tarok girl and you love her, this is the procedure towards marrying the girl.

Assuming you met her in the church, market or occasion you will go to her, ask of her name, place, and ask of the fathers name. You have to do this in order to ask people more about the behavior of the girl and the nature of their family. This is important because some diseases or mysterious things could have been known about the family, hence asking people about the family will help you to know about the girl. That is the reason why asking of where she lives and her fathers name will help you when you want to describe the family of the girl to your people.

You will then let her go and after some days you will go to her house in order to know the house.

How to behave when in the girls house

You will introduce yourself as the one that met her the other day and then you will make your intention known to her that you are in love with her. Reacting to you, she may ask you to give her time to think about it; she will get back to you when she gives it some thoughts.

When she finally agrees to your love for her, you now have to start coming to her house in order to talk and get to know more about each other.

After sometime, you need to start buying gifts for her such as soap and cream, slippers, towel, sponge etc. If she accepts your gifts, it means she has indirectly agrees to marrying you even though it may not be official but if she rejects your gifts, it means she wants to know more about you first or it might mean she simply does not want to marry you.

After sometime, you will ask her that you want to introduce yourself to her parents. She will then take you to her parents and introduce you to them as her Boyfriend. Even though you might have been coming and the parents have been seeing you, it does not mean that they should just assume that you are the boyfriend because even other men could be coming while you are coming. But the moment she introduces you to the parents, it means then that the parents will now accept you as the legal boyfriend and any other man that keeps coming would have to be cautioned.

You will squat to greet both parents. The parents will ask of your family, your Occupation and where you live. This is a custom in order to know the type of family you are coming from, their traditions and also to know if you are responsible.

On the day she introduces you to the parents, you need to give something called Atiba by giving it to the girl to give to her parents. This could be any amount of money or something tangible. This atiba signifies the fact that you love their daughter and that she has been booked. It is just like the parents are now guarding the girl for you.

As time goes on in the relationship, you start taking gifts and some items to the girl, her father and her mother and these things include:

Items needed by the girl: You will need to buy clothes and other items for the girl; the clothes are normally brought in a box and should contain: a set of inner wears, wrappers and some dresses. Together with these clothes, you need to buy shoes, soap, body cream and hair scarf.

For the Parents: You will have to help her mother and father to farm during the rainy season. You will do this by taking your friends or you will invite people and pay them. You will continue to help them to farm every rainy season as long as you have not married her. Once you marry her, you are not obligated again to farm for them unless you want to help them as in-laws- out of your own goodwill but not as traditions demand.

Concerning the farming, tradition also demands that you cultivate beni-seed or rice for the girl before marriage, this happens once.

You will build Igini a place where you are supposed to come and meet the girl and talk. You are not supposed to come and stay outside, but in a hut where you will talk with her. This hut will be built by you and it is what is known as Igini

When you want to finally marry her, you have to build a hut for the mum and a hut for the father. Out of these two huts, you have to choose one in order to decorate it by plastering it, flooring it and also roofing it.

Items for Tarok Dowry

Godo ( a blanket)

A cap, baba riga, and shoe for the Father of the girl

A goat or two goats for wishing good health

Hoe

Mat, clothes and shoes for the mother

You will start bringing the required things to the mother and then that of the father.

The requirements of the mother are:

– 2 bags of rice,

– Beniseed- 1 basin(30 measures), and

– Wrappers

– Blouses for each of the wrappers, three shoes and scarfs.

You are then required to bring the required items requested by the father, He will request for a goat or sometimes another hut or clothes. But His things are not serious like that of the mothers.

If the girls mother was wedded through church, then once you are done with the father, that will be all; but if the girls mother was not wedded through church marriage, then you will move on to the Maternal Uncle of the Girl. The Uncle may require you to build a hut for him or farm for him or ask for Godo (blanket).

Taking the girl as wife in the Tarok Traditional way

When you are done with paying all the required items, You will ask the girl of the day she wants to come in as a wife. Once she tells you the day, you will come on the stipulated day to take her as a wife. When taking her away, you do not have to tell the parents, but they will get to know when they cannot find her again after you have left. They will now check the Igini that was built by the man. Before the girl goes, she will keep a token (Money or any gift) in the IGINI.

It is the token that will show them that she has gone to stay as a wife.

Taking the girl as a wife by Church wedding

If you are going to do Church wedding, you will go to the church and pay a sum like 12,000 naira(In COCIN-Church of Christ in Nations, it may vary for other churches). The church will confirm if you have paid all the marital requirements, and they will now move on with their own requirements.

The requirements differ across different churches, but the basic ones are:

– Counseling the couples,

– Go for medical tests such as HIV and Genotype

If you pass that of the church, the church will ask you of the date you want for the wedding and if it is convenient with them, they will go on with the wedding.

If the Church finds out one of the couples is HIV +, or the Genotype is not compatible, the Church will not wed the couples. Also, during the counseling, if it is found that you have committed fornication with the girl, the church will postpone the marriage and put the two couples under church discipline, pending when they come during Holy Communion and confess their sins before the communicant members. The Church will now fix a new date for the marriage and proceed with it.

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