8 MARRIAGE AND HEREDITY 



herself out for a term of years to the keeper of a 

 house of ill-fame, in order to retrieve her father's 

 fortunes. The Hindu law does not recognise im- 

 potency as a bar to marriage. The wife of a Hindu 

 eunuch is allowed to have a son and heir by a male 

 friend of the husband's duly appointed to represent 

 him. 



Marriage by capture has been general all over the 

 world, and traces of it survive among ourselves in the 

 throwing of the slipper, originally no doubt a de- 

 fensive action, and in the providing of a " best man," 

 who was, of course, the bridegroom's stoutest supporter 

 in his attempt to carry off the bride from her pro- 

 tectors. In its early form the capture is real, violence 

 and stratagem being used by the bridegroom. Thus, 

 among the Australian blacks, a would-be husband 

 awaits his opportunity to pounce upon the unsus- 

 pecting object of his attentions. Then with a blow 

 of his club he stuns her, and carries her off senseless 

 to his tent. Or several men combine to capture 

 wives from a neighbouring tribe. Stealthily approach- 

 ing the camp by night, they twist their spears in the 

 hair of the women sleeping by the fires, and under 

 threat of instant death if they give the alarm, com- 

 pel them to follow them. In Fiji the seizure of 



