Page:The evolution of marriage and of the family ... (IA evolutionofmarri00letorich).pdf/116

 The Kurmis and other sudras celebrate marriage by a pretended combat. Sometimes the bridegrooms mark their foreheads with blood, which seems, indeed, to be the origin of the singular and nearly universal custom in India of the sindradan, consisting of marking the forehead of the bride with vermilion. The vermilion has apparently replaced the blood, and the blood may, and doubtless does, symbolise a violent rape.

With the Mecks and the Kacharis, the bridegroom, accompanied by his friends, goes to the house of his future bride; he there meets the friends of the latter, and the two troupes simulate a combat, in which the future husband is always victor; the bride finishes by being carried off, and her husband has only to feast the friends of both parties, and pay the father the price of the girl.

With the Soligas, the man carries away the young girl with her consent, and goes, like the Mongols, to a neighbouring village to pass the time of the honeymoon, after which the couple return home and give a feast.

The custom of simulated capture still exists among other aboriginal tribes of India, the Khonds, Badagas, etc.

It is evident that in primitive humanity, to carry off a woman with armed violence was considered a glorious exploit, since in the most diverse races pacific marriage assumes, with such good will, the pretence of violent conquest.

In New Zealand, in order to marry a girl, a man applied either to her father or nearest relation; then, consent being obtained, he ravished his future bride, who was bound to resist energetically. As the New Zealand women were robust, the contest, however courteous it might be, was severe; the clothes of the girl were generally torn to shreds, and it sometimes took hours to drag her a hundred yards.

Sometimes the mother of the bride interfered. Mr. Yate mentions a case of this kind. It relates to a mother quite content with the marriage of her daughter, but obliged by custom to make a show of violent opposition.