113 WIDE RANGE OF MARRIAGE BY CAPTURE. 'themselves and their horses, the bridegroom is suffered 'to overtake his bride. He leads her away in triumph, ' and the scene is concluded with feasting and festivity.' In European Turkey Mr. Tozer tells us that the 'Mirdites never intermarry; but when any of them, 'from the highest to the lowest, wants a wife, he carries 'off a Mahometan woman from one of the neighbouring tribes, baptizes her, and marries her. The parents, 'we were told, do not usually feel much aggrieved, as it is well understood that a sum of money will be paid ' in return.'1 Thus, then, we see that marriage by capture, either as a stern reality or as an important ceremony, prevails in Australia, among the Malays, in Hindostan, Central Asia, Siberia, and Kamskatka; among the Esquimaux, the Northern Redskins, the Aborigines of Brazil, in Chili, and Tierra del Fuego, in the Pacific Islands, both among the Polynesians and the Feejeeans, in the Philippines, among the Kaffirs, Arabs, and Negroes, in Circassia, and, until recently, throughout a great part of Europe. I have already referred to the custom of lifting the bride over the doorstep, which we find in such distinct and distant races as the Romans, the Redskins of Canada, the Chinese, and the Abyssinians. Hence, also, perhaps our honeymoon, during which the bridegroom keeps his bride away from her relatives and friends; hence even, perhaps, as Mr. M'Lennan supposes, the slipper is, in mock anger, thrown after the departing bride and bridegroom. The curious custom which forbids the father and I 114 MARRIAGE BY CONFARREATIO. mother-in-law to speak to their son-in-law, and vice versâ, which I have already shown (p. 15) to be very widely distributed, but for which no satisfactory explanation has yet been given, seems to me a natural consequence of marriage by capture. When the capture was a reality, the indignation of the parents would also be real; when it became a mere symbol, the parental anger would be symbolised also, and would be continued even after its origin was forgotten. The separation of husband and wife, to which also I have referred (p. 75), may also arise from the same custom. It is very remarkable, indeed, how persistent are all customs and ceremonies connected with marriage. Thus our bride cake,' which so invariably accompanies a wedding, and which must always be cut by the bride, may be traced back to the old Roman form of marriage by 'confarreatio,' or eating together. So also among the Iroquois, bride and bridegroom used to partake together of a cake of 'sagamité," which the bride offered to her husband. The Feejee Islanders 2 have a very similar custom. The marriage ceremony in Samoa, says Turner, 'reminds us of the Roman confarreatio.' Again, among the Tipperahs, one of the Hill tribes of Chittagong, the bride prepares some drink, 'sits on her 'lover's knee, drinks half, and gives him the other half; 'they afterwards crook together their little fingers.' 4 In one form or another a similar custom is found among most of the Hill tribes of India. A A very similar custom 93 4 Lewin's Hill Tracts of Chittagong, pp. 71, 80. Dalton's Des. Ethn. of Bengal, p. 193. MARRIAGE BY CAPTURE. 115 occurs in New Guinea, and in Madagascar also, part of the marriage ceremony consists in the bride and bridegroom eating out of one dish." Mr. McLennan conceives that marriage by capture arose from the custom of exogamy, that is to say, from the custom which forbade marriage within the tribe. Exogamy, again, he considers to have arisen from the practice of female infanticide. I have already indicated the reasons which prevent me from accepting this explanation, and which induce me to regard exogamy as arising from marriage by capture, not marriage by capture from exogamy. Mr. M'Lennan's theory seems to me quite inconsistent with the existence of tribes which have marriage by capture and yet are endogamous. The Bedouins, for instance, have marriage by capture, and yet the man has a recognised right to marry his cousin, if only he be willing to give the price demanded for her.3 Mr. M'Lennan, indeed, feels the difficulty which would be presented by such cases, the existence of which he seems, however, to doubt; adding, that if the symbol of capture be ever found in the marriage ceremonies of an endogamous tribe, we may be sure that it is a relic of an early time at which the tribe was organised on another principle than that of exogamy. That marriage by capture has not arisen merely from female coyness is, I think, evident, as already mentioned, firstly, because it does not account for the Gerland's Con. of Waitz' Anthrop., vol. vi. p. 633. 2 Sibree's Madagascar and its People, p. 193. 3 Klemm, Allg. Culturg. d. Mensch. vol. iv. P. 146. Loc. cit., p. 53. 116 EXPIATION FOR MARRIAGE. resistance of the relatives; secondly, because it is contrary to all experience that feminine delicacy diminishes with civilisation; and thirdly, because the very question to be solved is why it has become so generally the custom to win the wife by force rather than by persuasion. The explanation which I have suggested derives additional probability from the evidence of a general feeling that marriage was an act for which some compensation was due to those whose rights were invaded. The nature of the ceremonies by which this was effected makes me reluctant to enter into this part of the subject at length; and I will here therefore merely indicate in general terms the character of the evidence. I will firstly refer to certain details given by Dulaure in his chapter on the worship of Venus, of which he regards these customs merely as one illustration, although they have, I cannot but think, a signification deeper than, and different from, that which he attributes to them. We must remember that the better known savage races have, in most cases, now arrived at the stage in which paternal rights are recognised, and hence that fathers can and do sell their daughters into matrimony. The price of a wife is of course regulated by the circumstances of the tribe, and every, or nearly every, industrious young man is enabled to buy one for himself. As long, however, as communal marriage rights were in force this would be almost impossible. That special marriage was an infringement of these communal rights, for which some compensation was due, seems to me the true explanation of the offerings which 1 Hist. abrégée des diff. Cultes. BABYLONIA—ARMENIA—BALEARIC ISLANDS. 117 virgins were so generally compelled to make before being permitted to marry. In many cases the exclusive possession of a wife could only be legally acquired by a temporary recognition of the pre-existing communal rights. See, for instance, the account given by Herodotus,' of the custom existing in Babylonia. According to Strabo, there was a very similar law in Armenia.2 In some parts of Cyprus also, among the Nasamones, and other Ethiopian tribes, he tells us that the same custom existed; and Dulaure asserts that it occurred also at Carthage, and in several parts of Greece, as also, according to Hamilton, in Hindostan. The account which Herodotus gives of the Lydians, though not so clear, seems to indicate a similar law. The customs of the Thracians, as described by Herodotus, point to a similar feeling. Among races somewhat more advanced, the symbol supersedes the reality of this custom, and St. Augustine found it necessary to protest against that which prevailed, even in his time, in Italy. Diodorus Siculus mentions that in the Balearic Islands, Majorca, Minorca, and Ivica, the bride was for one night considered as the common property of all the guests present; after which she belonged exclusively to her husband." Garcilasso de la Vega records the existence of a similar custom among the |