SURVIVALS FROM MARRIAGE BY CAPTURE. 211 



in a disintegrated condition, of this or of the foregoing form. He 

 says, " A candidate for the hand of a virgin must escalade her 

 cabin, and is expected to overthrow a strong man placed in her 

 defense."* A still more disintegrated form is found in Turkey, 

 where the bridegroom is chased by the guests, who slap him on 

 the back and pelt him with their slippers. A curious variation of 

 this ceremony survives among the Arab tribes of Upper Egypt, 

 where, at the marriage feast, " the unfortunate bridegroom under- 

 goes the ordeal of whipping by the relations of his bride." Some- 

 times the punishment is exceedingly severe, it being administered 

 with a whip of hippopotamus-hide ; but, if the bridegroom wishes 

 to be considered a man of gallantry, he must receive the chastise- 

 ment with an expression of enjoyment. After the flogging, the 

 bride is led to the bridegroom's residence.! 



The next disintegration appears in those cases in which resist- 

 ance is offered only by the women of the bride's party, the men 

 remaining passive. This form prevails among the Khonds in the 

 hill tracts of Orissa (India). The bridegroom, assisted by a party 

 of twenty or thirty young men, carries off the bride, in spite of 

 the desperate attacks of her female friends, who hurl stones and 

 bamboos at the head of the devoted bridegroom, until he reaches 

 the confines of his own village. The same form is observed by 

 the Kolams of the Pindi Hills (India), by the Mosquito Indians 

 (Central America), and by the Eskimos of Cape York. A va- 

 riation is found in the kingdom of Futa, Senegal, West Africa, 

 where the bridegroom and party come to the house of the bride 

 by night and endeavor to carry her off. In this they are resisted 

 by all the girls of the village. A very disintegrated form of this 

 variety seems to have been in vogue at royal marriages in Ceylon. 

 Dr. Davy tells us that the king and queen threw perfumed balls 

 and squirted scented water at each other. In this the ivives of 

 the chiefs took part, and were at liberty to pelt and bespatter even 

 royalty itself as much as they pleased. J 



We pass now from cases in which actual violence is offered to 

 those in which violence is merely simulated. The first of these is 

 that in which there is a sham fight between the opposing parties. 

 This form is very widely distributed. Colonel Dalton mentions 

 that, among the Kols of central India, when the price of a girl 

 has been arranged, the bridegroom and a large party of his friends 

 of both sexes enter with much singing and dancing and sham 

 fighting into the village of the bride, where they meet the bride's 

 party, and are hospitably entertained.* The Malays of the Strait 



* Kingdom and People of Siam, vol. ii, p. 45. 



| Sir S. Baker, Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia, p. 125. 



$ Account of Ceylon, p. 166. * Ethnology of Bengal. 



