THEORIES OF PRIMITIVE MARRIAGE. 279 



was : ' Stupid white fellows ! why did you not bring away the gins ? ' " 

 And P. Martyr says that among the cannibal Caribs in his day "to 

 eat women was considered unlawful. . . . Those who were captured 

 young were kept for breeding, as we keep fowl, etc." . Early legends 

 of the semi-civilized show us the same thing ; as when in the "Iliad" we 

 read that tbe Greeks plundered "the sacred city of Eetion," and that 

 part of the spoils " they divided among themselves " were the women. 

 And there need no examples to recall the fact that in later and more 

 civilized times successes in battle have been followed by transactions 

 allied in character, if not the same in form. Hence it is obvious that, 

 from the beginning down to comparatively late stages, women-stealing 

 has been an incident of successful war. 



Observe, next, that the spoils' of conquest, some of them prized 

 for themselves, are some of them prized as trophies. Proofs of prow- 

 ess are above all things treasured by the savage. He brings back his 

 enemy's scalp, like the North American Indian. He dries and pre- 

 serves his enemy's head, like the New-Zealander. He fringes his robe 

 with locks of hair cut from his slain foe. Among other signs of suc- 

 cess in battle is return with a woman of the vanquished tribe. Be- 

 yond her intrinsic value she has an extrinsic value. Like a native 

 wife, she serves as a slave ; but, unlike a native wife, she serves also 

 as a trophy. As, then, among savages, warriors are the honored 

 members of the tribe as among warriors the most honored are those 

 whose bravery is best shown by achievements the possession of a 

 wife taken in war becomes a badge of social distinction. Hence mem- 

 bers of the tribe thus married to foreign women are held to be more 

 honorably married than those married to native women. What must 

 result ? 



In a tribe not habitually at w r ar, or not habitually successful in 

 war, no decided effect is likely to be produced on the marriage cus- 

 toms. If the great majority of the men have native wives, the pres- 

 ence of a few whose superiority is shown by having foreign wives 

 will fail to change the practice of taking native wives : the majority 

 will keep one another in countenance. But if the tribe, becoming 

 more successful in war, robs adjacent tribes of their women more fre- 

 quently, there will grow up the idea that the now-considerable class 

 having foreign wives form the honorable class, and that those who 

 have not proved their bravery by bringing back these living trophies 

 are dishonorable: non-possession of a foreign wife will come to be 

 regarded as a proof of cowardice. An increasing ambition to get 

 foreign wives will therefore arise ; and as the number of those who 

 are without them decreases, the brand of disgrace attaching to them 

 will grow more decided ; until, in the most warlike tribes, it becomes 

 an imperative requirement that a wife shall be obtained from another 

 tribe if not in open war, then by private abduction. 



A few facts showing that by savages proofs of .courage are often 



