Page:Transactions of the Second International Folk-Congress.djvu/383

Rh the Aryan people from whom the custom was supposed to have been borrowed really had the custom to lend. But this proviso is by no means fulfilled. Thus Esthonian brides on the morning after the wedding are taken to make offerings to the water-spirit, and they, indeed, may have borrowed the rite from the Teutons, amongst whom a corresponding custom prevailed. But the Mokscha-Mordwins, who also have the custom, could hardly have borrowed it from the Hindoos, the Modern Greeks, the Sardinians, the Servians, or the Albanians, who are the other Aryan peoples who preserve the custom. Further, it is essential to observe that the Esthonian custom most closely resembles not that of the Teutons, with whom alone of these Aryan peoples they came in contact, but that of the Hindoos, by whom they certainly have not been influenced. Amongst the Teutons, the bride simply stepped over a vessel of water, whereas amongst the Esthonians she throws offerings into the spring (or a vessel of water), overturns a vessel of water in the house, and sprinkles the bride-groom with water; whilst amongst the Hindoos offerings were cast into a water-vessel, the bride sprinkles the court of the new house with water by way of exorcism, and also sprinkles the bridegroom.

Or, again, take the Esthonian custom of leading the bride thrice round a fire, and casting offerings into it. The Esthonians might have borrowed it from the Teutons, but the Wotjaks could hardly have learnt it from the ancient Hindoos, Romans, or Prussians. And did Esthonian brides learn the custom of formally feeding the fire, on their first introduction to it, from the ancient Hindoos, the ancient Greeks, or the Servians?

These are customs which the Mordwins and Wotjaks could not have borrowed from the Russians, for we have no evidence that the Russians possess them; and I submit that the easier hypothesis is to suppose that these customs were inherited by the Esthonians, Mordwins, and Wotjaks respectively from their joint forefathers. I am conscious, however, that there are two objections possible, to which I have already alluded. In the first place, it may be said that the customs may exist or have existed amongst the Russians, though not recorded; next, that we must take into account the probability that the Russians inherited these customs from their pro-ethnic Aryan forefathers just