Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/63

 CHAP. 11 MARRIAGE. Ol is a religious ceremony. Was it not to mark more strongly that the wife, who was now to sacrifice to tiiis fire, had lierself no right thei'e, that she did not ap- pronch it of lier own Iree will, and that the master of the place and of the god introduced her by an act of his power? However this may be, after a feigned struggle, the Imsband raises her in his arms, and carries her through the doorway, taking great care, however, that lier feet do not touch the sill. What precedes is only a preparation, a prelude to the ceremony. The sacred act now commences in the house. 3. They approach the hearth; the wife is brought into the presence of the domestic divinity. She is sprinkled with the lustral water. She touches the sacred fire. Prayers are repeated. Finally, the husband and wife share between themselves a cake or a loaf. This sort of light meal, which commences and ends with a libation and a prayer, this sharing of nourish- ment in ])resence of the fire, puts the husband and wife in religious communion with each other, and in com- munion with the domestic gods. The Konian marriage closely resembled that of Greece, and, like it, comprised three acts — traditio^ deductio in domum^ confarreatio} ' Varro, L. L., CI. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 25, 26. Ovid, Fast., II. 558. Plutarch, Rom. Quest., 1.29; Romnh, 15; Plin., N. II., XVIII. 3. Tacit. Ann., IV. IG; XI. 27. Juvenal, Sat. X. 329-33G. Gaius, Inst., I. 112. Uplian, IX. Digest, XXIII. 2, 1. Fcstus, v. Rapi. Macrobius, Sat., I. 15. Servius, ad J^n., IV. 1C8. The same custom among the Etrus- cans, Varro, De Re Rust., II. 4. The same custom among the ancient Hindus, Laws of Manu, III. 27-SO, 172; V. 152; VIII. 227; IX. 104. Miiakchara, Orianne's trans., p. 106, 167, 236.