Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 45.djvu/406

 390 opinions, customs, and peculiar notions of ours which require an explanation for their presence and which represent an older period of culture." The Hindu, for example, continues to use the primitive fire-drill for kindling the sacred fires, although the lucifer match is used for all other purposes. Catlin noticed a similar custom among many Indian tribes of North America. The ancient Eygptians continued the use of the stone knife in the religious rite of circumcision long after the introduction of the metals. The institution of marriage to-day offers us illustrations of ceremonies which seem a necessary part of the institution; and yet, if we were asked for rational explanations of them, we should be at a loss to explain, were we not able to appeal to the evidence of history and call them survivals.

How can we explain the wedding cake, the bridal tour, the storm of rice and old shoes accompanying the departure of the happy couple, without an appeal to the customs of the past? The coyness of the maiden to-day is fully equaled by that of the savage maiden. It is customary with the latter to manifest opposition to entering the paths of matrimony, though that opposition in some cases is merely feigned. This probably originated—as most writers agree—among nations who were in the habit of capturing their wives from hostile tribes, but it has lingered as a conventional observance in cases where the change of state is not distasteful. Marriage by capture is not uncommon, and prevails among some of the Hindu tribes, Circassians, and the primitive races of Australia, New Zealand, and America; and survivals of this custom to-day would seem to indicate traces of this institution among the early Aryan and Semitic races. The rape of the Sabines affords a good illustration of this custom among the early Romans.

The primitive form of marriage by capture, however, gave way later to the ceremony of marriage by purchase, a price being paid by the groom to the parents of his bride, and the marriage contract being settled generally without the latter's consent. In this second stage, where the bride was secured by a more peaceful method, the violence accompanying the former mode of securing a wife still lingered in the form of a survival. In turn, the custom of purchasing a bride passed from the stage of reality to the ceremonial stage. Among the New-Zealanders a bride is only secured after a prolonged struggle between the friends of the groom and the friends of the bride. Among certain tribes of India the groom is obliged to overcome a strong man who is appointed to defend the bride. A curious parallel to this is noted among the Eskimos. The youthful candidate to matrimony is