MARRIAGE 73 



before. Very often the/woman marries a man and 

 all his brothers, the children being attributed to the 

 eldest husband. In polyandrous marriages the first 

 husband is, as a rule, the chief one, the second hus- 

 band being inferior and sometimes having to serve 

 the first. This custom seems to have existed, accord- 

 ing to Caesar, in Ancient Britain; the children were 

 considered as belonging to the man who first took 

 the girl to wife. In Tibet the elder brother has the 

 right to choose the wife; and the marriage contract 

 can include all his brothers, if they wish to avail 

 themselves of this right. The children call the elder 

 husband father, the younger husbands uncle. Poly- 

 andry often exists together with some other form of 

 marriage. 



MARRIAGE WAYS. 



The modes of procuring a wife are manifold. We 

 can divide them roughly into three classes : marriage 

 by capture, by purchase, and by free consent of the 

 parties. The practice of capturing wives has always 

 existed, and still prevails in many parts of the world. 

 Traces are to be found in the marriage ceremonies 

 of many races, and it has in consequence been asserted 

 that all humanity has once passed through this stage. 

 This, however, is now doubted, some of the customs 

 being rather interpreted as symbolical of the shyness 

 and reluctance of the bride in going to a strange man, 

 a reluctance which has to be overcome by the bride- 

 groom. Peaceful arrangements of marriage con- 

 tracts must always have existed, even side by side 

 with the capture of women. 



As a rule, primitive people are very warlike, and 



