SURVIVALS FROM MARRIAGE BY CAPTURE. 213 



the bride and her friends at the place of meeting. Being come 

 near each other, the custom was of old to cast short darts at the 

 company that attended the bride, but at such a distance that sel- 

 dom any hurt ensued. Yet it is not out of the memory of man 

 that the Lord of Hoath on such an occasion lost an eye. The cus- 

 tom of casting darts is now obsolete." * Among the Highlanders 

 of Scotland it was the custom for the parties of the bride and 

 bridegroom to go in procession to a point of meeting midway 

 between their dwellings, and, when they came near each other, to 

 fire volleys at one another from "pistols and muskets. 



The next disintegration seems to be found in those cases in 

 which all show of resistance to the party of the bridegroom is 

 limited to closing the house against it. Several varieties of this 

 form occur among the southern Slavs. In Croatia, the bride 

 and her friends being assembled, all the doors of the house are 

 closed to prevent a surprise by the bridegroom's party. The as- 

 sembled guests are on the alert, and, as soon as they hear the 

 party approaching, all the lights are put out and all keep silence. 

 The visitors knock repeatedly without getting any answer, but 

 at length they advance various pretexts to get admission, and at 

 last, after a long parley, are admitted. In Dalmatia and Bulgaria 

 the door is similarly closed against the bridegroom's party, and 

 admission only obtained on payment. In Transylvania the doors 

 are closed, and the bridegroom must, as best he can, climb over 

 into the court, open the door from within, and admit his com- 

 panions. 



We now come to those forms in which no resistance, either 

 real or feigned, is offered by the party of the bride, who merely 

 simulate grief or terror, and it is the party of the bridegroom 

 alone which makes a show of violence. This was the form ob- 

 served by the Romans in plebeian marriages, and a full descrip- 

 tion of it is given in the Golden Ass of Apuleius, in the story 

 of the Captive Damsel, where the bride, describing how she was 

 carried off, says that a band of men, armed with swords, rushed 

 in, and, without meeting with any resistance from the inmates, 

 tore her from her mother. The Circassians have the same cere- 

 mony, it being the custom to give a feast, in the midst of which 

 the bridegroom rushes in and, with the help of some companions, 

 carries off 'the bride by force. This form, in a very disintegrated 

 condition, is found in the isle of Skye and the west Highlands 

 of Scotland, in the ceremony known as " stealing the bride." It 

 occurs in the middle of a reel. The groomsman and bridesmaid 

 slip into the place in the dance of the bridegroom and bride, 

 while the bridegroom suddenly jerks the bride out of the room. 



* Description of Westmeath. 



