352 SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF 



As regards Europe, we find just the same thing; the Eomans had a 

 similar custom, and traces of it occur in Greek history. 



So deeply rooted is the feeling of a connection between force and 

 marriage, that we find the former used as a form long after all necessity 

 for it as a reality had ceased to exist ; and it is very interesting to trace, 

 as Mr. McLennan has done, the gradual stages through which a stern 

 reality softens down into a mere symbol. 



For, as communities became larger and more civilized, the actual cap- 

 turc became inconvenient, and, indeed, impossible. Gradually, therefore, 

 it sunk more and more into a mere form. 



In North Friesland the bride makes a show of resistance, and is lifted 

 by mock force into the wagon which is to take her home. 



Hence, no doubt, the custom of lifting the bride over the doorstep, 

 which occurs or did occur among the Romans, the redskins of Canada, 

 the Chinese, and the natives of Abyssinia. Hence, also, perhaps our 

 custom of the honeymoon ; and hence, also, may be, as Mr. McLennan 

 has suggested, the slipper is thrown in mock anger after the departing 

 bride and, bridegroom. The latter suggestion is indeed very doubtful; 

 still it is remarkable how persistent are all customs and ceremonies con- 

 nected with marriage. Thus our "bridecake," which so invariably 

 accompanies a wedding, and which must always be cut by the bride, 

 may be traeed back to the old Eoman form of marriage by '■'• confarreatio,^'' 

 or eating together. So also imong the Iroquois, the bride and bride- 

 groom used to partake together of a cake of sagamite, which the bride 

 always offered to her husband. Again, among several of the Indian Hill 

 tribes, the bride prepares some drink, sits on her lover's knee, drinks 

 half herself, and gives him the rest. 



It requires strong evidence, which, however, exists in abundance, to 

 satisfy us that marriage was, in its origin, independent of all sacred and 

 social considerations ; that it had nothing to do with mutual affection 

 or consent; indeed,* that all appearance of consent was forbidden; so 

 that it was symbolised not by any demonstration of warm affection on 

 the one side, and tender devotion on the other, but by brutal violence 

 and unwilling submission. 



Yet, as already mentioned, the evidence is overwhelming. Marriage 

 by ca])ture, either as a reality or as a form, has been shown to exist in 

 Australia, and among the Malays, in Hiudostan, Central Asia, Siberia, 

 and Kamtchatka, among the Esquimaux, the northern redskins of 

 America, the aborigines of the Amazon Valley, in Chili and in Tierra 

 del Fuego, in the Pacific Islands, in the Philippines ; among the Arabs, 

 Negroes, and Circassians ; and, until lately, in various parts of ISTorthern 

 Europe. 



I will now proceed to the consideration of the statement that the 

 second stage in the development of the idea of family consists in the 

 recognition of relationship to the mother, that to the father being still 

 overlooked. 



In almost all tropical countries polygamy is very frequent; the chiefs 

 especially take to themselves a large number of wives. In Western 

 Africa, for instance, the king of Ashantee made it a point of honor to 

 have always 3,333 wives. Among hunting races, though polygamy is 

 less prevalent, men who are powerful, either physically or socially, fre- 

 quently appropriate to themselves the wives of those who are weaker. 

 Either of these conditions — either the multiplicity of wives, or frequent 

 changes, would weaken very much the tie between father and child. 

 Hence, probably, the curious fact, that in many parts of the world a 

 man's property does not descend to his own children, but to those of his 



