AN ETHNOLOGIC STUDY OF THE YURUES. 191 



parents and friends of the intended go to the tent of the yonng 

 lady, where, as soon as they arrive, they are offered the sherbet 

 or sorbet, a beverage made with water, lemon, sugar, amber and 

 other spices. The purpose of this visit is to appoint a day for the 

 marriage. When the time comes the young man engages a numer- 

 ous escort of friends, and they start all together for the tent of 

 the young woman. The bride has also gathered around her a large 

 number of her friends to protect her. When the escort of the 

 groom is near, the bride's protectors utter, at a signal, the wildest 

 cries, run to the aggressors, insult them, and endeavor to defend 

 the access of the tent. Insults and even blows are profusely ex- 

 changed between the two camps. This sham fight ends when one 

 of the bravest succeeds in carrying off a goat or a sheep belonging 

 to the father-in-law, and immolates it at once. 



The blood shed is considered as a sacred libation, and from that 

 moment the rights of the groom over his wife are recognized. The 

 two families and all their friends are invited to a banquet in which 

 they eat the sheep that was sacrificed. 



Before night the bride is escorted to the tent of her husband on 

 horseback. There, before alighting, she must remove the reins 

 from her horse and throw them with force over the tent. If she 

 succeeds in flinging them on the other side, without their touching 

 the tent, they all declare it a happy omen. 



At last some women execute dances appropriate to the circum- 

 stances, and, as they dance, all armed for the occasion, the effect 

 of their graceful movements, in the magnificence and freshness of 

 the Oriental twilight, is very impressive. 



When all these formalities are accomplished, the guests re- 

 tire, and the husband, accompanied by his most intimate friends, 

 is led to the tent where his young wife awaits him. All the 

 Yuruks espouse one woman at a time; polygamy is prohibited 

 and severely punished. 



De. D. G. Beixtost and Dr. de la Tourette are agreed that nervous diseases 

 and hysteria are not specially developed by civilizatioD, as is commonly supposed. 

 Dr. Brinton, in Science, quotes travelers for evidence that violent and epidemic 

 nervous seizures are very common in uncultivated nations. Castian describes 

 them among the Sibiric tribes. An unexpected blow on the outside of a tent will 

 throw its occupants into spasms. The early Jesuit missionaries painted extraordi- 

 nary pictures of epidemic nervous maladies among the Iroquois and Hurons. 

 Scenes of this kind were witnessed in the middle ages that are impossible to-day. 

 The hypothesis is advanced by Dr. I. 0. Bosse, of Georgia Medical College, that a 

 sudden change in the social habit and condition of any race, at any stage of ad- 

 vancement, may result in a prompt development of nervous disease; and that 

 a stable high civilization may excite nervous disorders less than unstable condi- 

 tions of lower grades of advancement. 



