Chapter XVIII: Part II: For the usages of allied races see Rockhill, "Notes (1)

on the Ethnology of Tibet," in _Report of Smith. Inst._,
1893, Nat. Museum (Washington, 1895); Kohler, "Studien aus
dem japanischen Recht," in _ZVR._, X; Koehne, "Das Recht der
Kalmücken," _ibid._, IX; Dalmas, _Les Japonais_ (Paris, 1885);
Daigoro, "Family Relations in Japan," in _Transactions of the
Japan Society_, II; Rein, _Japan nach Reisen und Studien_
(Leipzig, 1881); Hitchcock, "The Ainos of Yezo, Japan," in
_Report of Smith. Inst._, 1890, Nat. Museum (Washington, 1891);
Araki, _Japanisches Eheschliessungsrecht_ (Göttingen, 1893);
Loti, "Woman in Japan," in _Harper's Monthly_ (New York, 1890),
LXXXII, 119-31; and Titsingh, _Cérémonies usitées au Japon_
(Paris, 1822), the first volume containing very curious and
valuable matter concerning wedding customs.

By far the most thorough and comprehensive researches regarding
the culture and social life of the American aborigines have
been made by American scholars in the _Contributions to
American Ethnology_, the _Reports of the Bureau of Ethnology_,
the _Reports of the Smithsonian Institution_, including those
of the National Museum, and in various periodicals, notably
the _American Antiquarian_ and the _American Anthropologist_.
The most important of these papers for Indian marriage and
family customs are Dorsey, "Omaha Sociology," in _III. Rep.
of Bureau of Eth._, 205-370 (Washington, 1884), supplemented
by his "Siouan Sociology," _ibid._, XV, 205-44 (Washington,
1897); McGee, "Siouan Indians," _ibid._, XV, 153-204; _idem_,
"The Seri Indians," _ibid._, XVII, Part I (Washington, 1898);
Mooney, "Siouan Tribes of the East," in _XVII. Rep. of Bureau
of Eth._ (Washington, 1894); Riggs, "Dakota Grammar, Texts,
and Ethnography," in _Contributions to N.A. Ethnology_, IX
(Washington, 1893); and the elaborate work of Powers, "Tribes
of California" (Washington, 1877), constituting the third
volume of the same series. Some important illustrations of the
matrimonial usages of the Eskimo may be found in Murdoch, "Eth.
Results of Point Barrow Expedition," in _IX. Rep. of Bureau
of Eth._ (Washington, 1892); Nelson, "The Eskimo about Bering
Strait," _ibid._, XVIII, Part I (Washington, 1899); and Turner,
"Ethnology of the Ungava District," _ibid._, XI (Washington,
1894). See also MacCauley, "The Seminole Indians," _ibid._, V
(Washington, 1887); Stevenson, "The Sia," _ibid._, XI, 3-157
(Washington, 1894); Hoffman, "Menomini Indians," _ibid._, XIV
(Washington, 1896); Grossmann, "The Pima Indians of Arizona,"
in _Report Smith. Inst._, 1871 (Washington, 1873); Beckwith,
"Notes on Customs of the Dakotahs," _ibid._, 1886, Part I
(Washington, 1889); Willoughby, "Indians of the Quinaielt
Agency," _ibid._, Part I; Eells, "Twana, Chemakum, and Klallam
Indians," _ibid._, 1887 (Washington, 1889); Niblack, "Coast
Indians of Southern Alaska and Northern Brit. Col.," _ibid._,
1888, Nat. Museum (Washington, 1890); Boaz, "Social Organization
and Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians," _ibid._, 1895,
Nat. Museum (Washington, 1897); Stephen, "The Navajo," in _Am.
Anthropologist_, VI (Washington, 1893); Grinnell, "Marriage
among the Pawnees," _ibid._, IV (Washington, 1891); Corbusier,
"Apache-Yumas and Apache-Mojaves," in _Am. Antiquarian_, VIII
(Chicago, 1886); Beauchamp, "Aboriginal Communal Life," _ibid._,
IX (Chicago, 1887), attacking Morgan's views; Peet, "Village
Life and Clan Residences among the Emblematic Mounds," _ibid._,
IX; his "Ethnographic Religions and Ancestor Worship," and his
"Personal Divinities and Culture Heroes," both _ibid._, XV
(Chicago, 1893); Powell, "Wyandotte Society," in _Proc. Am.
Assoc. Adv. Sci._, XXIX (Salem, 1880); Beauchamp, "Permanence of
Early Iroquois Clans and Sachemships," _ibid._, XXXIV (Salem,
1886); Mallery, "Israelite and Indian," _ibid._, XXXVIII (Salem,
1890); Fletcher's papers on totemism and animism in "Emblematic
Use of the Tree in the Dakotan Group," and her "Study from the
Omaha Tribe," both _ibid._, XLV, XLVI (Salem, 1897-98); Halbert,
"Courtship and Marriage among the Choctaws of Mississippi," in
_Amer. Naturalist_, March, 1832; Carr, "The Social and Political
Position of Women among the Huron-Iroquois Tribes," _XVI. Rep.
of Peabody Museum_ (Cambridge, 1883).

Very valuable early notices of the social customs of the
Brazilian Indians may be found in Stade, _Captivity among
the wild Tribes of eastern Brasil, 1547-55_ (London, 1874);
Anchieta, "Informação dos Casamentos dos Indios do Brasil,"
in _Revista Trimensal_, VIII (Rio de Janeiro, 1867); Souza,
"Tratado descriptivo do Brazil em 1587," _Revista do Instituto
Hist. e Geog._, XIV (Rio de Janeiro, 1851); Léry, _Du mariage,
polygamie, et degrez de consanguinité_ (3d ed., Geneva, 1585);
D'Evreux, _Voyage dans le nord du Brésil, 1613-14_ (Leipzig and
Paris, 1864); Moure, "Les Indiens de la province de Matto-Grosso
(Brésil)," in _Nouvelles annales des voyages_, 1862, II
(Paris); Guimarães, "Costumes e Linguagem dos Appiaacás ...
de Matto-Grosso," in _Revista Trimensal_, VI (2d ed., Rio de
Janeiro, 1865); and Magalhães, "Familia e Religião Selvagem,"
_Revista Trimensal do Instituto_, etc., XXXVI (Rio de Janeiro,
1873, 1876). With these may be read the important accounts of
Lafitau, _Mœurs des sauvages_ (Paris, 1724); Pratz, "Des mœurs
et coutumes des peuples de la Louisiane (Natchez)," in his
_Hist. de la Louisiane_, II (Paris, 1758); and Dobrizhoffer's
description of "weddings" and "marriages" in his _Account of the
Abipones, an Equestrian People of Paraguay_ (London, 1822; Latin
ed., 1784), among whom he lived as missionary for eight years
after his arrival in 1749. There is also a very interesting
passage in Humbolt, _Vues de Cordillères_ (Paris, 1810). See
further Von den Steinen's _Unter den Naturvölkern Brasiliens,
1887-8_ (Berlin, 1894); Martius, _Von dem Rechtszustande
unter den Ureinwohnern Brasiliens_ (Munich, 1832); which is
reprinted with other matter in his _Beiträge zur Ethnographie
und Sprachenkunde Amerikas zumal Brasiliens_ (Leipzig, 1867);
and Adam, _Du parler des hommes et du parler des femmes dans
la langue Caraïbe_ (Paris, 1879). Much material is also
contained in Rink, _Eskimo Tribes_ (Copenhagen and London,
1887); his _Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo_ (Edinburgh
and London, 1875); Catlin, _North American Indians_ (London,
1841); Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes_ (Philadelphia, 1853-56);
Bancroft, _Native Races_ (New York, 1875-76); Kohler, "Das
Recht der Azteken," in _ZVR._, XI; Vols. III and IV of Waitz,
_Anthropologie_; Krause, _Die Tlinkit-Indianer_ (Jena, 1885);
and Bandelier "Social Organization and Mode of Government of
the Ancient Mexicans," in _Rep. Peabody Museum_, II, 557-699.

Among the many works cited in this chapter which have already
been enumerated in preceding Bibliographical Notes especially
important are those of Jolly, Leist, Krause, Rossbach, Morgan,
Bernhöft, Friedrichs, Spencer, Lubbock, Ploss, Lippert,
Robertson Smith, Finck, Grosse, Hellwald, and various writings
of Kohler.]

Everywhere among our ancestors, when authentic history dawns upon the institutions of the Germanic race, marriage is effected by means of a contract. The transaction is a contract of sale through which for a price the bride is conveyed by the father or guardian into the bridegroom's hand. But, as will appear later, the element of sale is rapidly taking on a symbolical character. The question arises in the outset as to the antiquity of contract in marriage. Is it of comparatively late origin, as is often assumed? Or can the element of agreement, of consent of the parties, be traced from the very beginning of the human family? Again, what is the character and what the historical significance of marriage by purchase? Is it the earliest form of matrimonial contract, and does it constitute a universal phase of development subsequent to that of capturing women?

I. WIFE-CAPTURE AND THE SYMBOL OF RAPE[472]

[472] For wife-capture see MCLENNAN, _Studies_, I,
31 ff.; II, 57 ff., 268 ff., _passim_; _Patriarchial Theory_,
chap, xiii; POST, _Familienrecht_, 97 ff., 137-57;
_Geschlechtsgenossenschaft_, 54 ff.; _Ursprung des Rechts_, 47,
57; _Anfänge_, 209; _Grundlagen_, 229 ff.; 240; _Afrikanische
Jurisprudenz_, I, 323 ff.; HELLWALD, _Die mensch.
Familie_, 275-86; GROSSE, _Die Formen der Familie_,
105 ff.; ACHELIS, _Entwicklung der Ehe_, 79 ff.;
KULISCHER, "Intercommunale Ehe durch Raub und Kauf,"
_ZFE._, X, 192 ff.; LETOURNEAU, _L'évolution du
mariage_, 110-29; DARGUN, _Mutterrecht und Raubehe_;
SCHROEDER, _Hochzeitsbräuche der Esten_, 14 ff.;
WESTERMARCK, _Human Marriage_, 383-90; STARCKE,
_Primitive Family_, 209 ff., _passim_; LUBBOCK, _Origin
of Civilization_, 104-33; GIRAUD-TEULON, _Les origines_,
117 ff.; LIPPERT, _Geschichte der Familie_, 42 ff., 100
ff., 95-118, 148 ff.; _idem_, _Kulturgeschichte_, II, 93 ff.,
103, 129; WAKE, _Marriage and Kinship_, 402-34, 246
ff., 305, 350; KOHLER, "Studien," _ZVR._, V, 334-68;
FRIEDRICHS, "Familienstufen und Eheformen," _ibid._,
X, 212, 213; BERNHÖFT, "Principien des europäischen
Familienrechts," _ibid._, IX, 392-406; LEIST,
_Alt-arisches Jus Gentium_, 126 ff.; ZMIGRODSKI, _Die
Mutter_, 249 ff.; KAUTSKY, in _Kosmos_, XII, 256 ff.,
338 ff.; HILDEBRAND, _Ueber das Problem_, 17 ff.;
HEUSLER, _Institutionen_, II, 277-86; MUCKE,
_Horde und Familie_, 108 ff., _passim_; SPENCER, in
_Various Fragments_, 74 ff., replying to McLennan.

According to McLennan, as we have already seen, capture as a means of getting wives is a universal practice among primitive men. It is due to polyandry occasioned by a scarcity of women; it leads to exogamy; and it is generally superseded by contract in the form of wife-purchase.[473] The evidence of the former universality of the custom is derived from two sources: first, the existence of actual wife-capture among many peoples in all parts of the world; second, the symbol of rape in the marriage ceremony or in the preliminary act of taking the woman. The symbol, it is held, can be accounted for only as a survival of real capture. Other writers agree with McLennan in regarding the evidence as conclusive. Such, in effect, is the view of Dargun, though he admits that it cannot with absolute certainty be assumed that capture was ever the only form of marriage recognized.[474] Post, on the other hand, declares that the universality of wife-stealing is beyond question; and he holds that it is a natural incident of the genealogical organization of society. It is connected in the closest manner with the exogamous system peculiar to that organization, appearing as one of the means by which marriage can be brought about between members of different gentile groups. It was, in short, the legal means of procuring a wife.[475]

[473] MCLENNAN, _Studies_, I, chaps. ii-vi, _passim_;
_Patriarchal Theory_, chap. xiii.

[474] "Ein zweites, bemerkenswertes Factum ist, dass es
vergeblich wäre ein Volk finden zu wollen, von welchem direkt
erwiesen werden könnte, es schliesse gegenwärtig sämmtliche Ehen
auf dem Wege des Raubes, oder habe sie jemals nur auf diesem Wege
geschlossen. Daher kann nicht mit voller Sicherheit behauptet
werden, der Frauenraub sei je einzige Eheschliessungsform
gewesen. Um so wahrscheinlicher ist es, dass er gewöhnliche,
vorherrschende Eheschliessungsform war, da sich nur unter dieser
Voraussetzung die allgemeine Anwendung der Entführungssymbolik
bei den einzelnen Völkern erklären lässt."--DARGUN,
_Mutterrecht und Raubehe_, 79, 80.

[475] POST, _Familienrecht_, 137, 138. KOHLER
also regards capture as a general stage preceding that of
wife-purchase: "Studien," _ZVR._, V, 336; _idem_, "Indisches Ehe-
und Familienrecht," _ibid._, _ZVR._, III, 342 ff.; and such also
is the view of LIPPERT, _Geschichte der Familie_, 42
ff., 44, 95-118.

Nevertheless, a careful study of the facts makes it almost certain that the significance of wife-stealing as a sociological element has been greatly exaggerated, and its true relation to marriage strangely misunderstood.[476] It is perfectly natural that savage or barbarous races should seize women as a part of the ordinary spoils of war. Everything portable becomes the prey of the victor. "The taking of women," to repeat the forcible words of Spencer, "is manifestly but a part of this process of spoiling the vanquished." They are "prized as wives, as concubines, as drudges."[477]

[476] Such is the view of LETOURNEAU in his
able discussion of this subject: "Si pourtant l'on ne
peut se dispenser d'étudier spécialement le mariage par
capture, c'est qu'on lui a fait jouer en sociologie un rôle
capital."--_L'évolution du mariage_, 110 ff.

[477] SPENCER, _Principles of Sociology_, I, 650.

Accordingly, it is not difficult to collect examples of the actual capture of women to serve as slaves, mistresses, or wives at the pleasure of the captor. Among the aboriginal American tribes, we are told, the practice is originally found in its "greatest perfection."[478] From Cape Horn to Hudson's Bay women are regarded as legitimate booty. The Horse Indians of Patagonia fight with each other, tribe against tribe, the issues of victory in every case being the "capture of women and the slaughter of men." The Patagonian Oens, or Coin-men, make systematic excursions every year at the time of the "red-leaf" to "plunder Fuegians of their women, dogs, and arms."[479] It is even reported of the Caribs that they depend so much upon the securing of foreign wives in war that nowhere do the women speak the same language as the men,[480] and a similar statement is made concerning the Brazilian Guaycurûs[481] and some other peoples.[482] But in North America the capturing of women for wives has nearly disappeared.

[478] MCLENNAN, _Studies_, I, 31 ff.

[479] _Ibid._, 32; LETOURNEAU, _op. cit._, 114; _Voyages
of the Adventure and Beagle_, II, 205.

[480] ADAM, _Du parler des hommes_, 2 ff.;
MARTIUS, _Rechtszustande_, 55; LETOURNEAU,
_op. cit._, 114; MCLENNAN, _op. cit._, I, 33, 34;
WESTERMARCK, _Human Marriage_, 383; WAITZ,
_Anthropologie_, III, 355; DARGUN, _Mutterrecht und
Raubehe_, 82. But see CRAWLEY, _Mystic Rose_, 46-48, who
believes the difference of language is one of the results of the
fear of evil which causes sex-segregation and sexual taboo.

[481] MARTIUS, _Ethnologie_, I, 106, 107; _idem,
Rechtszustande_, 55, 62.

[482] HELLWALD, _Die mensch. Familie_, 188.

The practice of capturing or forcibly abducting women, though rare, exists among the Hottentots and elsewhere in Africa.[483] It prevails throughout all Melanesia, where abduction is described as the "primitive means of procuring wives or rather slaves, absolutely at the pleasure of the ravisher."[484] It has existed in Tasmania, New Zealand, Samoa, New Guinea, among the Fiji Islanders, throughout the Indian Archipelago, and to a very limited extent in Australia.[485] For the Finnish-Ugrian and Turco-Tartaric peoples proofs of the present or former existence of the practice have been collected.[486]

[483] LETOURNEAU, _op. cit._, 113, 114;
WESTERMARCK, op. cit., 384; POST, Afrikanische
Jurisprudenz, I, 324 ff.

[484] LETOURNEAU, _op. cit._, 111.

[485] DARGUN, _op. cit._, 81; WESTERMARCK, _op.
cit._, 385; FISON AND HOWITT, _Kamilaroi and Kurnai_,
343 ff.; MATHEWS, "Australian Aborigines," _Jour. Roy.
Soc., N. S. Wales_, XXIII, 407; SMYTH, _Aborigines of
Victoria_, II, 316; SPENCER AND GILLEN, _Native Tribes
of Cent. Australia_, 102-5, 554-56.

[486] See especially SCHROEDER, _Hochzeitsbräuche_;
BUCH, _Die Wotjäken_, 49 ff.; KOHLER,
"Studien," _ZVR_., V, 334 ff.; and his "Frauenwerbung und
Frauenraub im finnischen Heldenepos," _ibid._, VI, 277 ff.

There are abundant evidences of woman-capture _de facto_ among peoples of the Aryan stock. It existed among the ancient Germans;[487] and according to Olaus Magnus, the Scandinavian nations were continuously at war with one another "propter raptas virgines aut arripiendas."[488] The same writer says that it "prevailed in Muscovy, Lithuania, and Livonia;" while among the South Slavonians actual capture "was in full force no longer ago than the beginning of the present century."[489] Such was the case in Servia, where it was the custom either to lie in wait for a girl of a neighboring village to bear her away as she went out for water or to tend the flocks; or else an armed assault was made upon her home. Murders were thus often committed; for the attacking party were resolved to suffer themselves to be killed rather than give up the girl, and all the inhabitants of the girl's village took part in the fray.[490] According to Dargun, the Slavs are as conspicuous among the Aryans for wife-capture and its survivals as are the Aryans, for the same reason, among the great divisions of mankind.[491] It is not at all unlikely that the custom of wife-stealing existed among the early Romans, even if the story of the Sabine rape be dismissed as merely an ætological myth to explain the symbol of capture in the marriage ceremony.[492] Without doubt it was also common among the primitive Greeks; and "even now, according to Sakellarios, capture of wives occasionally occurs in Greece."[493] It is found "among the aborigines of the Deccan, and in Afghanistan;"[494] while it was known to the ancient Hindus. The code of Manu mentions capture as one of the eight legal forms of marriage. "The forcible abduction from home of a maiden crying out and weeping, after slaying and wounding her relatives and breaking in, is called the Rāksasa form;" but this is only for the military class.[495]

[487] DARGUN, _op. cit._, 111-40; WEINHOLD,
_Deutsche Frauen_, I, 308-10; GRIMM, _Deutsche
Rechtsalterthümer_, 440; WESTERMARCK, _op. cit._, 387.

[488] WESTERMARCK, _op. cit._, 387, citing OLAUS
MAGNUS, _Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus_, Book X,
chap, ii, 328. _Cf._ also MCLENNAN, _op. cit._, I, 37;
and DARGUN, _op. cit._, 95-97, who gives the passage
from Olaus.

[489] WESTERMARCK, _op. cit._, 387. Compare
KOVALEVSKY, _Mod. Customs and Ancient Laws of Russia_,
23, 24.

[490] DARGUN, _op. cit._, 93, 94; SCHROEDER,
_Hochzeitsbräuche_, 18; KULISCHER, "Intercommunale Ehe
durch Raub und Kauf," _ZFE._, X, 197; DÜRINGSFELD,
_Hochzeitsbuch_, 73, 77.

[491] DARGUN, _op. cit._, 92.

[492] _Ibid._, 100-102; ROSSBACH, _Die römische Ehe_,
214, 215, 328 ff.; LUBBOCK, _Origin of Civilization_,
124; SCHROEDER, _op. cit._, 16.

[493] WESTERMARCK, _op. cit._, 386, citing
ZMIGRODSKI, _Die Mutter bei den Völkern des arischen
Stammes_, 250. For the ancient Greeks see MCLENNAN,
_op. cit._, I, 44-46; DARGUN, _op. cit._, 99;
SCHROEDER, _op. cit._, 15, 16; ROSSBACH, _op.
cit._, 213. According to HRUZA, _Ehebegründung_, 5;
_idem_, _Polygamie und Pellikat_, 79, 94, 95, capture of women
for wives existed only in isolated cases among the ancient
Hellenes.

[494] MCLENNAN, _op. cit._, I, 35, citing
CAMPBELL'S _Indian Journal_ (1864), 400, and
LATHAM'S _Descriptive Ethnology_, II, 215.

[495] BURNELL AND HOPKINS, _Ordinances of Manu_, III,
vss. 33, 26, pp. 48, 49, 189-91. _Cf._ MCLENNAN,
_op. cit._, I, 42, 43; DARGUN, _op. cit._, 93;
WESTERMARCK, _op. cit._, 386; LETOURNEAU,
_L'évolution du mariage_, 115; LEIST, _Alt-arisches
Jus Gentium_, 126 ff.; KOHLER, "Indisches Ehe- und
Familienrecht," _ZVR._, III, 344 ff.; MAYNE, _Hindu
Law and Usage_, 76, 77, 80; SCHROEDER, _op. cit._, 15;
JOLLY, _Rechtliche Stellung der Frauen bei den ältern
Indern_, 19; _idem_, _Hindu Law of Partition_, 73 ff.

The capture of women for wives is very prominent with savage or barbarous peoples of the Semitic race. "At the time of Mohammed," says Robertson Smith, "the practice was universal" among the Arabs. "The immunity of women in time of war which prevails in Arabia now is a modern thing; in old warfare the procuring of captives both male and female was a main object of every expedition, and the Dîwân of the Hodhail poets shews us that there was a regular slave trade in Mecca, supplied by the wars that went on among the surrounding tribes.... Very commonly these captives at once became the wives or mistresses of their captors--a practice which Mohammed expressly recognized, though he sought to modify some of its more offensive features. Such a connection does not appear to have been, properly speaking, concubinage." The sons of a captive woman suffered no legal disability. "According to Arab tradition the best and stoutest sons are born of reluctant wives. And so Hâtim, the Taite, says:

'They did not give us Taites their daughters in marriage:
but we wooed them against their will with our swords.

'And with us captivity brought no abasement to them: and
they neither toiled in making bread nor boiled the pot.

'But we commingled them with our noblest women: and they
bare us fair sons white of face [_i. e._, of pure descent].

'How often shalt thou see among us the son of a captive
bride: who staunchly thrusts through heroes when he
meets them in the fight!'"[496]

[496] ROBERTSON SMITH, _Kinship and Marriage_, 72-74;
_cf._ LETOURNEAU, _op. cit._, 115, 116; KOHLER,
"Das vorislamitische Recht der Araber," _ZVR._, VIII, 240, 241,
247.

But nothing can exceed the brutal ferocity with which sometimes the people of Israel supplied themselves with women. The Hebrew Bible contains various striking illustrations of the practice. Contrary to law, which forbade intermarriage with the gentiles, members of the military class were allowed to marry foreign women taken in war.[497] On one occasion the tribe of Benjamin, or rather the remnant of it which had escaped the sword of Israel, stood in sore need of wives; but their brethren had sworn not to give them their daughters in marriage, nor could they legally marry gentile women. "The difficulty of procuring wives for Benjamin--which Israel made its _own_ difficulty--was solved by the wholesale slaughter of the inhabitants of Jabez-Gilead, whose population yielded 400 virgins; and next by the men of Benjamin enacting a rape of the Sabines for themselves, each man seizing and carrying off one of the daughters of Shiloh to be his wife, on an occasion when the women met for a festival in certain vineyards near Bethel."[498] In this case the spoils of treachery and war were Jewish women. At another time the alien Midianites were conquered; and at the command of Moses the women and even the male infants which the soldiers had spared were deliberately slaughtered. The virgins alone, thirty-two thousand in number, were kept alive; and these were divided among the people precisely as was the other booty, even the priests, apparently, receiving a share.[499]

[497] Deut. 21: 10-14. _Cf._ MCLENNAN, _op. cit._, I,
43, 44, who calls attention to SELDEN'S treatise on the
rules regulating such marriages: _De jure naturali et gentium
juxta disciplinam Ebraeorum_, lib. v, cap. xiii, fol. 617.

[498] MCLENNAN, _op. cit._, I, 46, 47;
LETOURNEAU, _op. cit._, 115; _cf._ Judg., chaps. 20, 21.

[499] Numb., chap. 31; _cf._ LETOURNEAU, _op. cit._,
115, 116; HELLWALD, _Die mensch. Familie_, 183.

It would be a very easy matter to produce further examples of a custom which appears as a simple incident of war and rapine at certain stages of human progress. Everywhere among rude men we find lust and physical force triumphing over the weakness of woman. In the successful foray or in the sack of a town she is treated merely as a part of the prey, becoming the slave, the concubine, or even the wife of the spoiler. "But in these brutal practices," it is patent, "there is nothing which bears even a distant resemblance to marriage."[500] It is highly necessary, as Letourneau rightly insists, to distinguish sharply between rape and the marriage institution. So-called marriage by capture, he declares, is not a form of marriage at all; "it is merely a manner of procuring one or several wives, whatever the matrimonal system in use."[501] As a matter of fact, actual wife-capture usually, perhaps always, coexists with regular forms of marriage. Thus, as we shall presently see, it frequently makes its appearance side by side with wife-purchase; and sometimes the transition from capture to purchase, as a means of procuring wives, may be clearly perceived.

[500] LETOURNEAU, _op. cit._, 116.

[501] _Ibid._, 110. _Cf._ the similar conclusion of
BERNHÖFT, "Principien des eur. Familienrechts," _ZVR._,
IX, 392, 393, 394; and GROSSE, _Die Formen der Familie_,
105 ff.

Accordingly Letourneau is of the opinion that the name "marriage by capture" should be reserved for legal and pacific marriages in whose ceremony the symbol of rape appears.[502] But even this is too broad a use of the term, which at most can strictly be applied only to the comparatively small number of cases in which the form of capture is an essential part of the legal ceremony. For the symbol occurs in every shape and in every grade of significance, from the brutal combat of the Australian savage to the harmless prank of casting the old shoe with which among ourselves the wedding festivities are enlivened. It exists in connection with every phase of development, from the rudest savagery to the most advanced type of Aryan culture; and it is found among the same people, sometimes in various forms, side by side with actual capture or associated with the most refined conception of the marriage relation.[503]

[502] LETOURNEAU, _op. cit._, 116, 117 ff.

[503] DARGUN'S classification of peoples, among whom
occurs so-called marriage by capture in its various forms, will
be found useful (_Mutterrecht und Raubehe_, 78 ff., 92, 138,
139). They are divided into two major classes:

I. Peoples among whom wife-capture is an essential part of
marriage. This class comprehends three grades according to the
consent of the guardian (_Gewalthaber_) of the woman:

1. In the first grade fall peoples among whom wife-capture is
customary without any regard to the guardian: East Indians,
Slavs, Germans, and various non-Aryan peoples.

2. In the second grade fall peoples among whom it is the custom,
after the capture is effected, to compound with the guardian by
paying a penalty for the abduction or a price for the woman:
including Slavs, Lithuanians, modern Greeks of the Ionian Isles,
the Ossetes of the Caucasus, the Germans, and certain non-Aryan
peoples.

3. In the third grade are peoples among whom the abduction of
the bride, no longer accompanied by actual violence, is a legal
requirement, though preceded by consent of the guardian. Besides
non-Aryan examples, here are found the Romans, ancient Greeks,
Slavs, possibly the Germans.

II. Peoples among whom wife-capture exists as a survival in
merely symbolical form and without legal significance. Examples
among nearly all peoples in every stage of advancement.

_Cf._ the similar classification of POST,
_Familienrecht_, 139, 140.

A very few illustrations of these curious practices, selected from the mass of material available, must here suffice.[504] Sometimes there is a pretended abduction of the bride by the bridegroom. Among the Eskimo of Cape York, for instance, the marriage is arranged amicably by the parents in the infancy of the parties. Nevertheless the wedding ceremony simulates an abduction. The bride "is obliged by the inexorable law of custom to free herself, if possible, by kicking and screaming with might and main, until she is safely landed in the hut of her future lord, when she gives up the combat very cheerfully, and takes possession of her new abode."[505] In the Ungava District the "sanction of the parents is sometimes obtained by favor or else bought by making certain presents of skins, furs, and other valuables." If no parents are living, the brothers and sisters must be favorable to the union. "When all obstacles are removed and only the girl refuses, it is not long before she disappears mysteriously, to remain out for two or three nights with her best female friend, who thoroughly sympathizes with her. They return, and before long she is abducted by her lover, and they remain away until she proves to be thoroughly subjected to his will."[506] In Greenland a similar practice is found.[507] It appears in some Siouan tribes.[508] Among the Canadian Indians, after a kind of civil marriage is solemnized before the tribal chief, "the groom turns around, makes an obeisance, takes his wife upon his back, and carries her to his tent amid the acclamations of the spectators."[509] Sometimes the affair takes on a more earnest character. Among the Bedouins of Sinai the bridegroom seizes the woman whom he has legally purchased, drags her into her father's tent, lifts her violently struggling upon his camel, holds her fast while he bears her away, and finally pulls her forcibly into his house, though her powerful resistance may be the occasion of serious wounds.[510] Especially interesting is the form which symbolical abduction assumes among the Kamtchadales. There the wooer, like Jacob of old, is expected to earn his wife by serving her parents. He takes upon himself a good part of the domestic labor, and the term of service sometimes lasts for a number of years. "This is surely a singular prelude to a forcible marriage by capture; nevertheless, when the period of novitiate has expired, the future spouse must violently and publicly triumph over the resistance of his betrothed. She is cuirassed with garments, thick and superimposed, with straps and with strings. Moreover, she is guarded and defended by the women of her yourt. The marriage is not definitely concluded until the bridegroom, surmounting all these obstacles, succeeds in perpetrating upon his intended, so well protected, a sort of outrage upon her modesty, which she ought to confess by crying out _ni ni_ in a plaintive voice. But the women and the maidens of the guard fall upon the assailant with loud cries and heavy blows, pulling his hair, scratching his face, and sometimes throwing him over. Victory often requires repeated assaults, sometimes days of combat. Only when at last it is won and the bride yields herself is the marriage concluded. The night is then passed in the yourt of the wife, who is conducted to the husband's house only on the following day."[511] The sham contest takes a somewhat different form, according to Bancroft, among the Mosquito Indians of Central America. "At noon the villagers proceed to the home of the bridegroom," whom they accompany to the "house of the bride where the young man seats himself before the closed entrance on a bundle of presents intended for the bride. The father raps at the door which is partly opened by an old woman who asks his business, but the reply does not seem satisfactory, for the door is slammed in his face." With great difficulty, and only after entreaties, music, and presents have been tried, is the door opened, "revealing the bride arrayed in her prettiest, seated on a crickery, in the remotest corner. While all are absorbed in examining the presents, the bridegroom dashes in, shoulders the girl like a sack, and trots off for the mystic circle," within which a hut has already been erected. This hut he reaches, urged on by the frantic cries of the women, before the crowd can rescue her. "The females, who cannot pass the ring, stand outside giving vent to their despairing shrieks, while the men squat within the circle in rows, facing outward.... After dark the crowd proceeds with lighted torches to the hut, which is torn down, disclosing the married pair sitting demurely side by side. The husband shoulders his new baggage and is escorted to his home."[512] On the other hand, instead of abduction, the simulated flight of the woman is of frequent occurrence. Sometimes she seeks refuge in the house of a relative, or conceals herself in the woods, whence she can only be brought back with more or less violence.[513] Thus in southern California, according to Bancroft, "where an Oleepa lover wishes to marry, he first obtains permission from the parents. The damsel then flies and conceals herself; the lover searches for her, and should he succeed in finding her twice out of three times she belongs to him. Should he be unsuccessful he waits a few weeks, and then repeats the performance. If she again elude his search, the matter is decided against him."[514] By the Siouan peoples elopement is "considered undignified, and different terms are applied to a marriage by elopement and one by parental consent."[515] Nevertheless, as among the Omahas, the custom is sanctioned. Sometimes, according to Dawson, "a man elopes with a woman. Her kindred have no cause for anger" if he takes her as his wife. "Should a man get angry because his single daughter, sister, or niece had eloped, the other Omahas would talk about him, saying, 'that man is angry on account of the elopement of his daughter!' They would ridicule him for his behavior. La Flèche knew of but one case, and that a recent one, in which a man showed anger on such an occasion. But if the woman had been taken from her husband by another man, her kindred had a right to be angry. Whether the woman belongs to the same tribe or to another the man can elope with her if she consents. The Omahas cannot understand how marriage by capture could take place, as the woman would be sure to alarm her people by her cries."[516]

[504] On the form of capture, see DARGUN, _op.
cit._, 86-92, 102 ff., 111 ff.; HELLWALD, _op.
cit._, 286-305; GROSSE, _Die Formen der Familie_,
105 ff.; SCHROEDER, _Hochzeitsbräuche_, 14 ff.;
KOHLER, "Studien," _ZVR._, V, 334 ff.; and for examples,
KOHLER'S papers in _ZVR._, VII, 371 (New Guinea); VI,
333, 339, 399 (Roumania); IX, 325 (Bengal); XI, 57 (Azteks), 436
(Kamerun); REHME, "Das Recht der Amaxosa," _ZVR._, X,
38; LETOURNEAU, _op. cit._, 117-29; MCLENNAN,
_op. cit._, I, 9-21; WESTERMARCK, _op. cit._,
382-90; POST, _Geschlechtsgenossenschaft_, 54 ff.;
_Familienrecht_, 137-57; STARCKE, _Primitive Family_,
212 ff., 262; and illustrations in SCHMIDT, _Hochzeiten
in Thüringen_, 33, 36, 40; WOOD, _Wedding Day_, 35, 46,
59, 68, 118 ff., 121-44, _passim_; and DÜRINGSFELD,
_Hochzeitsbuch_, _passim_.

[505] HAYES, _The Open Polar Sea_, 432; quoted by
LUBBOCK, _Origin of Civilization_, 118, 119. _Cf._ also,
LETOURNEAU, _op. cit._, 117.

[506] TURNER, "Ethnology of the Ungava District," in
_XI. Rep. of Bureau of Eth._, 188. "I knew of one instance,"
he adds, "when a girl was tied to a snow house for a period of
two weeks, and not allowed to go out." Forcible abduction is
referred to by MURDOCH, "Point Barrow Expedition,"
_ibid._, IX, 412, 413. The practice also exists at Smith
Sound: BESSELS, in _Naturalist_, XVIII, Part IX;
MURDOCH, _op. cit._, 411.

[507] MURDOCH, _op. cit._, 411, citing EGEDE'S
_Greenland_.

[508] BECKWITH, "Customs of the Dakotahs," _Rep. Smith.
Inst._, 1886, Part I, 256 (abduction with purchase). Among the
Siouan Indians, according to MCGEE, there is no marriage
by capture; but captive women are sometimes espoused and girls
are occasionally abducted: _XV. Rep. of Bureau of Eth._, 178.

[509] CARVER, _Travels_, 374; LETOURNEAU,
_L'évolution du mariage_, 118; LUBBOCK, _Origin of
Civilization_, 85. A similar custom exists among the Khands of
Orissa: LUBBOCK, _op. cit._, 114; MCLENNAN,
_Studies_, I, 13-15; POST, _Familienrecht_, 144.

[510] DARGUN, _Mutterrecht und Raubehe_, 88, who names
many other peoples among whom the like custom prevails. _Cf._
LUBBOCK, _op. cit._, 123, 113 ff.; BURCKHARDT,
_Notes on the Beduins and Wahabys_, I, 263, 108, 234. _Cf._
KOHLER, "Das vorislamitische Recht der Araber," _ZVR._,
VIII, 247, 248.

[511] LETOURNEAU, _op. cit._, 118, 119; _cf._
LUBBOCK, _op. cit._, 117, 118. In Kamchatka, according
to MÜLLER, _Description de toutes les nations de
l'empire de Russie_, II, 89, "attraper une fille est leur
expression pour dire marier."--LUBBOCK, 118.

[512] BANCROFT, _Native Races_, I, 732, 733. For
further examples of "ceremonial" capture or abduction, see
PEAL, "On the 'Morong,'" _Jour. Anth. Inst._, XXII, 255;
KLEMM, _Kulturgeschichte_, IV, 27 (Tscherkessen).

[513] DARGUN, _Mutterrecht und Raubehe_, 88, 89, 108
ff.; LUBBOCK, _op. cit._, 118-20.

[514] BANCROFT, _op. cit._, I, 389.

[515] DORSEY, "Siouan Sociology," _XV. Rep. of Bureau of
Eth._, 242. Compare MCGEE, "Siouan Indians," _ibid._,
178, who says elopements are sometimes sanctioned.

[516] DORSEY, "Omaha Sociology," _III. Rep. of Bureau of
Eth._, 260, 261.

Among the Kalmucks both abduction and pretended flight are found. According to De Hell, among the noble or princely class, after the bridegroom has arranged with the father for the price of the girl, he "sets out on horseback, accompanied by the chief nobles of the horde to which he belongs, to carry her off." A "sham resistance is always made by the people of her camp, in spite of which she fails not to be borne away on a richly caparisoned horse, with loud shouts and _feux de joie_."[517] A different custom is described by Dr. Clarke. After stipulation of the price the "ceremony of marriage among the Kalmucks is performed on horseback. A girl is first mounted, who rides off in full speed. Her lover pursues: if he overtakes her, she becomes his wife, and the marriage is consummated on the spot." But the race sometimes has a different ending. "We were assured," continues Clarke, "that no instance occurs of a Kalmuck girl being thus caught, unless she have a partiality to the pursuer. If she dislikes him she rides, to use the language of English sportsmen, 'neck or nought,' until she has completely effected her escape, or until her pursuer's horse becomes exhausted, leaving her at liberty to return, and to be afterwards chased by some more favored admirer."[518]

[517] XAVIER HOMMAIRE DE HELL, _Travels in the
Steppes of the Caspian Sea_ (London, 1847), 259; cited by
MCLENNAN, _Studies_, I, 15. _Cf._ LETOURNEAU,
_op. cit._, 119.

[518] CLARKE, _Travels_, I, 433; MCLENNAN,
_op. cit._, I, 15, 16. _Cf._ KOEHNE, "Das Recht der
Kalmücken," _ZVR._, IX, 462; DARGUN, _op. cit._, 89;
LUBBOCK, _op. cit._, 116, 117.

With the Kalmuck case may be compared the following, communicated
by Dawson: "One day in 1872, when the writer was on the Ponka
Reservation in Dakota, he noticed several young men on horseback,
who were waiting for a young girl to leave the mission house.
He learned that they were her suitors, and that they intended
to run a race with her after they dismounted. Whoever could
catch her would marry her; but she would take care not to let
the wrong one catch her. La Flèche and Two Crows maintain that
this is not a regular Ponka custom, and they are sure that
the girl (a widow) must have been a 'mickeda,' or 'dissolute
woman.'"--DAWSON, "Omaha Sociology," in _III. Rep. of
Bureau of Eth._, 260.

Not less interesting than the forms of flight and abduction is the custom of elopement, implying the connivance or consent of the woman. In Tasmania[519] and in Australia, especially among the Kurnai, etiquette requires that the lover should run away with his betrothed. Contrary to the common opinion, capture of women seldom occurs in Australia, and then only as the result of war between hostile tribes.[520] "The young Kurnai," however, "could acquire a wife in one way only. He must run away with her. Native marriages might be brought about in various ways. If the young man was so fortunate as to have an unmarried sister, and to have a friend who also had an unmarried sister, they might arrange with the girls to run off together; or he might make his arrangements with some eligible girl whom he fancied and who fancied him; or a girl, if she fancied a young man, might send him a secret message asking, 'Will you find me some food?' And this was understood to be a proposal. But in every such case it was essential to success that the parents of the bride should be utterly ignorant of what was about to take place. It was no use his asking for a wife excepting under most exceptional circumstances, for he could only acquire one in the usual manner, and that was by running off with her."[521] According to Mr. Howitt, marriage by elopement exists among many other Australian tribes. It seems to be the favorite method when the parents of the girl are opposed to the match. In that case, the girl is sometimes severely punished; or the man is supposed to retain her only as the result of a successful combat with her friends, which may prove to be something more than a sham combat.[522]

[519] BONWICK, _Daily Life and Origin of the
Tasmanians_, 65, 66.

[520] MCLENNAN, _op. cit._, I, 38 ff., maintains the
prevalence of capture _de facto_, especially in the form of
violent abduction; and he is followed by LUBBOCK, _op.
cit._, 111-13. According to FISON AND HOWITT, _Kamilaroi
and Kurnai_, 343 ff., women are sometimes (1) stolen from kindred
groups; (2) seized in war between related clans; or (3) captured
from alien tribes, elopement being of more frequent, and marriage
by exchange or gift of less frequent, occurrence. But it should
be remembered that elopement and purchase often go together.
MR. CURR, _The Australian Race_, I, 108, states that
women are very seldom captured from other tribes, the practice
being discouraged for fear of stirring up incessant attacks.
_Cf._ WESTERMARCK, _Human Marriage_, 384, 385; and
KOHLER, "Das Recht der Australneger," _ZVR._, VII, 350
ff.

SPENCER AND GILLEN, _Native Tribes of Cent. Australia_,
104, 105, 554-60, name four methods of obtaining wives among
these aborigines: (1) charming by means of magic; (2) capture,
being of "much rarer occurrence;" (3) elopement, a form
"intermediate" between the method of charming and that of
capture, often leading to bloody fights; (4) the custom "in
accordance with which every woman in the tribe is made _Tualcha
mura_ [prospective mother-in-law] with some man. This relation
is entered into while the male and female are in tender years;
so that the boy is thus betrothed to the prospective, unborn
daughter of his _Tualcha mura_. This is the usual method of
obtaining a wife in the Arunta and Ilpirra tribes.

[521] FISON AND HOWITT, _op. cit._, 200.

[522] _Ibid._, 348-55. _Cf._ DAWSON, _Australian
Aborigines_, 34.

The examples thus far presented have all been selected from the matrimonial customs of non-Aryan peoples; but the symbol of capture, in a great variety of forms and combinations, may also be found in every subdivision of the Aryan race. It appears in the marriage ceremonies of Sparta, Crete, and among other Hellenes.[523] The nuptial celebration of the Romans was characterized throughout by the show of force. For this reason they hesitated to hold weddings on religious days, lest these should be desecrated by the seeming violence done to the bride.[524] With the rising of the evening star took place the _domum deductio_, or carrying home, of the woman.[525] The girl fled to the lap of her mother, whence she was dragged forcibly away by the bridegroom and his friends who rushed noisily in.[526] On the way she held back, weeping and struggling, while her attendants sang hymeneal songs, not always the most refined in character. Thus in his nuptial hymn Catullus has the choir of maidens exclaim:

"Say, Hesper, say, what fire of all that shine
In Heaven's great vault more cruel is than thine?
Who from the mother's arms her child can tear--
The child that clasps her mother in despair;
And to the youth, whose blood is all aflame,
Consigns the virgin sinking in her shame!
When towns are sacked, what cruelty more drear."[527]

At the door the bride makes a last effort to resist; but she is lifted forcibly over the threshold, and even in the house she is held fast by the arms, until at last she is fully initiated into the sacred rites of the bridegroom's house.[528] It is noteworthy that the custom of dragging the bride into the husband's house, or of lifting her over the threshold, exists even now in many places. It appears in Africa; among the Ests, Kalmucks, and Bedouins; the Indians of southern California, and elsewhere in North America.[529] In "China, when the bridal procession reaches the bridegroom's house, the bride is carried into the house by a matron, and lifted over a pan of charcoal at the door."[530]

[523] DIONYSIUS, II, 30; PLUTARCH, _Lives_,
I, 133, 134 (Lycurgus); HERODOTUS, Book VI, 65;
RAWLINSON, III, 377; MÜLLER, _Doric Races_,
II, 278; SMITH, _Dict. of Ant._, II, 130-38;
DARGUN, _op. cit._, 99, 100; MCLENNAN, _op.
cit._, I, 44 ff., 12 ff.; LUBBOCK, _op. cit._, 81.

[524] "Feriis autem vim cuiquam fleri piaculare est, ideo
tunc vitantur nuptiae, in quibus vis fieri virginibus
videtur."--MACROBIUS, _Sat._, 1, 15; _cf._
DARGUN, _op. cit._, 100.

[525] The _domum deductio_ was the second act in the patrician
marriage ceremony of _confarreatio_, and in this case it appears
to have been a necessary form. But it was probably also observed,
as a nuptial custom, in connection with plebeian free marriages
as well as in the _coemptio_: ROSSBACH, _Die römische
Ehe_, 92 ff., 116, 145, 155, 328 ff.; _idem_, _Hochzeits- und
Ehedenkmäler_, 39-118. _Cf._ MARQUARDT, _Privat-Leben_,
I, 38; SMITH, _Dict. of Ant._, II, 142; FUSTEL DE
COULANGES, _Ancient City_, 55 ff.; DARGUN, _op.
cit._, 100 ff.

[526] "Rapi simulatur virgo exgremio matris aut si ea non est, ex
proxima necessitudine, cum ad virum trahitur, quod videlicet ea
res feliciter Romulo cessit."--FESTUS, _De verb. sig.,
s. v. Rapi_.

[527] CATULLUS, _Carmina_, LXII, 20-24;
MARTIN'S translation, 89. See also CATULLUS,
LVI and LXI, for other allusions to Roman wedding customs;
and compare OVID, _Metamorphoses_, IV, 75-78;
VIRGIL, _Eclogues_, VIII, 30, and SERVIUS,
_Commentaria, ad hoc loc_. In general, ROSSBACH,
_op. cit._, 328 ff., 359; MARQUARDT, _op. cit._, I,
37-55; FRIEDLÄNDER, _Sittengeschichte_, I, 463-66;
BOUCHÉ-LECLERCQ, _Institutions romaines_, 468 ff.;
BECKER, _Gallus_, 160, 161, 153-81; PLUTARCH,
_Lives_, I, 69-73 (Romulus); SMITH, _op. cit._, II,
138 ff., 142 ff.; LETOURNEAU, _op. cit._, 124, 125;
WESTERMARCK, _op. cit._, 386; DARGUN, _op.
cit._, 100 ff.; MCLENNAN, _op. cit._, I, 13.

The symbol of capture is especially prominent in Celtic song and custom. As in the German epics, it was not thought unseemly for the daughter to marry the hero who had slain her father.[531] "According to tradition the Picts robbed the Gaels of their women, so that the latter were compelled to intermarry with aboriginal inhabitants of the land."[532] Near the beginning of last century the following marriage ceremony was customary in Wales: "On the morning of the wedding day the bridegroom, accompanied by his friends on horseback, demands the bride. Her friends, who are likewise on horseback, give a positive refusal, upon which a mock scuffle ensues. The bride, mounted behind her nearest kinsman, is carried off and is pursued by the bridegroom and his friends, with loud shouts. It is not uncommon on such an occasion to see two or three hundred sturdy Cambro-Britons riding at full speed, crossing and jostling, to the no small amusement of the spectators. When they have fatigued themselves and their horses, the bridegroom is supposed to overtake his bride. He leads her away in triumph, and the scene is concluded with feasting and festivity."[533] Still more real is the sham contest in Ireland. As late as the middle of last century, in mountain districts, the bridegroom "was compelled in honor, to run off with his betrothed, even when there was not the least need of it."[534] On the day of home-bringing, after the purchase-contract had been concluded, "the bridegroom and his friends rode out to meet the bride and her friends, at the place where the contract was made. Being come near each other the custom was of old to cast short darts at the company that attended the bride, but at such distance that seldom any hurt ensued. Yet it is not out of memory of man that the Lord of Hoath on such an occasion lost an eye."[535]

[528] DARGUN, _op. cit._, 101; FUSTEL DE
COULANGES, _op. cit._, 56; ROSSBACH, _op. cit._,
359.

[529] DARGUN, _op. cit._, 88; SCHROEDER,
_Hochzeitsbräuche_, 88 ff.; LUBBOCK, _Origin
of Civilization_, 85, 86, 122, 123; POST,
_Geschlechtsgenossenschaft_, 60; MCLENNAN, _op. cit._,
I, 19. BANCROFT gives an interesting description of the
custom among the California Indians: "On the appointed day the
girl, decked in all her finery, and accompanied by her family
and relations, was carried in the arms of one of her kinsfolk
toward the house of her lover.... The party was met half-way
by a deputation from the bridegroom, one of whom now took the
young woman in his arms and carried her to the house of her
husband."--_Native Races_, I, 411.

[530] LUBBOCK, _op. cit._, 86; DAVIS, _The
Chinese_, I, 285; LETOURNEAU, _op. cit._, 144, 145;
POST, _op. cit._, 57.

DARGUN, _op. cit._, 88, 91, says, besides the custom
just mentioned, there is but one other survival of wife-capture
among the Chinese--the forbidding of friendly intercourse between
the newly wedded husband and the mother-in-law. JAMESON,
_China Review_, X, 95, thinks that in China there is no trace
of capture; but KOHLER, in _ZVR._, VI, 405, 406, gives
an example of the alleged symbol of rape among the Chinese.
_Cf._ NEUMANN, _Asiatische Studien_, I, 112; and
WESTERMARCK, _Human Marriage_, 387.

ARAKI, _Japanisches Eheschliessungsrecht_, 9, 10, denies
the former existence in Japan of purchase or capture of wives.

[531] DARGUN, _op. cit._, 102, who refers to the
legend of Launcelot and the song of Laudine and Iwein:
GERVINUS, _Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung_, 5th ed.,
I, 447, 449. For the same practice in German songs and epics see
DARGUN, _op. cit._, 119.

[532] MCLENNAN, _op. cit._, I, 68; DARGUN, _op.
cit._, 102.

[533] LORD KAMES, _History of Man_ (Edinburgh, 1807), I,
449: MCLENNAN, _op. cit._, I, 18; LUBBOCK, _op.
cit._, 125; DARGUN, _Mutterrecht und Raubehe_, 103.

[534] DARGUN, _op. cit._, 102, 103.

[535] PIERS, _Description of Westmeath_, quoted by
LUBBOCK, 26, 27; see also DARGUN, _op. cit._,
103.

A custom, almost identical with that last mentioned, prevails in the Punjab;[536] and in many parts of India the sham contest and the pretended abduction appear.[537] But nowhere are the symbols of capture found in such wonderful variety and profusion as in Germany and Slavonic lands. The mass of illustration presented by Dargun is almost bewildering for its richness.[538] Every form and type of ceremonial capture is there represented. Elopement, the sham combat, abduction by an armed band, is the regular order of the wedding day in every country of the Slavonic race. In Germany, besides these practices, reminiscences of capture are found in a great variety of pranks and fantastic sports. The bride is concealed from her lover before the wedding; or, after it takes place, she is stolen and concealed by the young people of the village. The bridegroom is hindered from entering the home of his intended on the wedding day; or he finds his way barred to or from the church, and is permitted to proceed only after paying a fine or treating the crowd.[539] Sometimes, as in Sweden, the bride is stolen by her lover and hidden away.[540] In upper Bavaria, on the day of the wedding, she clothes herself in mourning, black or violet;[541] and the practice of covering or veiling her head is as familiar in Germany as it was in ancient Rome.[542] "To veil the woman," _quên liugan_, is the Gothic name for marriage; in Lorraine it is called _Brautjagd_, or "bride-hunt;" while _Brautlauf_, or "bride-race," for the entire nuptial celebration is a common designation in German lands.[543] The original meaning of _Brautlauf_ is probably revealed in the existing custom of chasing the bride. Thus, in Altmark, after the wedding feast, followed by a dance, a runaway match takes place between the newly married pair. "Two lusty young fellows take the girl between them, the bridegroom gives her a 'start,' and the race begins. If the lover does not succeed in overtaking her, he must look out for the gibes of the crowd."[544]

[536] LUBBOCK, _op. cit._, 115, 116.

[537] POST, _Geschlechtsgenossenschaft_, 58;
LUBBOCK, _op. cit._, 114-16; MCLENNAN,
_op. cit._, I, 13-15. For symbols of rape in India see
KOHLER, in _ZVR._, VIII, 91, 114 (Dekkan); IX, 325
(Bengal); X, 74-77 (Bombay).

[538] For the Slavs see DARGUN, _op. cit._, 103 ff.;
and for the Germans, _ibid._, 111-40; DÜRINGSFELD,
_Hochzeitsbuch_, 22 ff., 65 ff., 113 ff., _passim_.

[539] This custom, in some form, prevails throughout Europe:
DARGUN, _op. cit._, 107 ff., 135 ff. On all these
practices compare SCHROEDER, _Hochzeitsbräuche_, 57 ff.

[540] "In Schweden wird die Braut an manchen Orten vom
Bräutigam und seinen Gehilfen tief im Heu versteckt
gefunden."--DARGUN, _op. cit._, 132;
DÜRINGSFELD, _Hochzeitsbuch_, 9.

[541] WEINHOLD, _Deutsche Frauen_, I, 389; _cf._
DARGUN, _op. cit._, 130.

[542] DARGUN, _op. cit._, 130, 131; _cf._
SCHROEDER, _op. cit._, 72-78.

[543] In the _Brautlauf_ "eine Beziehung auf den Frauenraub ist
anzunehmen, ebenso wie beim analogen Ausdruck 'Brautjagd' in
Lothringen, beim altnordischen 'qvânfang, konfang, verfang,'
d. h. Frauenfang für Ehe und beim gothischen 'quên liugan' das
Weib verhüllen, verschleiern, binden für Heiraten, sowie beim
gleichbedeutenden mittelhochdeutschen: 'der briute binden.'"
DARGUN, _op. cit._, 130; _cf._ SCHMIDT,
_Hochzeiten in Thüringen_, 40; DÜRINGSFELD, _op. cit._,
155 ff.

[544] DARGUN, _op. cit._, 130, 131. WEINHOLD,
_op. cit._, I, 384 ff., gives many examples of similar wedding
customs, and SCHMIDT, _Jus primae noctis_, 126-46,
discusses the _Brautlauf_ and like practices, citing the sources
in detail. _Cf._ GRIMM, _Rechtsalterthümer_, 419;
_idem_, _Wörterbuch_, II, 336 ff.

As illustration of social custom and mental attitude the extraordinary prevalence of the so-called symbol of capture is undoubtedly a fact of unusual interest; and it constitutes an important chapter in the history of marriage. But it does not follow, as a matter of course, that the symbol must necessarily be regarded as a survival of actual capture. It is scarcely credible that its origin can be traced to a single source. On the contrary, it is far more likely that in different places, or even in the same place, it takes its rise in a variety of causes, though these may be less simple in character. Thus, in spite of the protest of McLennan,[545] who asserts that "no case can be cited of a primitive people among whom the seizing of brides is rendered necessary by maidenly coyness," it is highly probable that the real or assumed modesty of the woman has exerted a strong influence, here and there, in producing the form of capture.[546] Sometimes the simpler explanation of Starcke may suffice. Ceremonial capture, he declares, merely represents the "sorrow of the bride on leaving her former home; her close dependance on her family is expressed by her lamentation."[547] Again the symbol may appear as the sign of the subjection or subordination of the wife; for many of the so-called minor survivals seem to have this end in view. In a society where woman, on occasion, is seized in the bloody foray; where, often, she is bought like a beast of burden; and where, generally, she is exposed to the cruelty and brutality of her master, it is not surprising that the token of the wife's humility should find its way into the ceremony of marriage.[548] Furthermore the suggestion of Letourneau is worthy of special consideration. The symbol of rape, he holds, is first of all a "mental survival;" a "tradition" of an epoch more or less remote when violence was held in high esteem and when it was glorious to procure slaves by force of arms. The period of rapine may have passed away, but its spirit lingers. Men love to figure in the ceremonial of marriage the abductions of old, which they cannot or dare not any longer commit.[549]

[545] MCLENNAN, _op. cit._, I, 10, criticises
MÜLLER, _Doric Races_, Book IV, chap, iv, sec. 2, who
accounts for the sign of rape in the Spartan ceremony on the
ground of coyness. See also ROSSBACH, _Die römische
Ehe_, 328, who holds the same view; and RAWLINSON'S
notes, _Herodotus_, Book VI, 65; FINCK, _Primitive
Love_, 123 ff., who rejects Spencer's theory.