New-York tribune., 1869-06-04
WEDDING CUSTOMS.

Harper Brothers.
Mr. Wood is an industrious collector of out-of-the-
wav facts and stories and has brought together in
this volume an interesting store of curious learning
gathered from travellers tales and antiquaries
records He has made little or no attempt to ar
range his materials nor has he apparently exercised
the critical function very carefully in testing the
truth of all his stories; but what he gives us 49,
nevertheless entertaining, and, in some respects
valuable.
The idea which seems to be most generally SYM
bozed in the marriage customs of eaIler times and
less civilized peoples than our own, is the
inferiority and subjection of woman; and
the further back we 60 toward primi-
tive barbarism the more brutal this symbolism
becomes The Jews used to select ifor weddings the
day before the meeting of the sanhedrm, namely
Wednesday so that if the groom had any fault to
find with his venture, he could bring her before the
council without loss of time but if the wife had
cause of complaint it does not appear that any rem
edy was provided. Throwing shoe at bridal party
for luck is a we'll known modern CUSTOM butin some
parts of the East practice to present slipper
in token of the wOman's subjugation to her welded
lord, and at Jewish marriages the bridegroom some
times enforced the lesson more strongly bystrikin8
bis wife with a shoe. In Russia on the wedding
night the groom ordered his wife to get ont of bed
and pull off his boots and she submissyely Obeycd
In one Of the boots hidden whip, IN
the other a trinket. If she first drew the latter
it was good omen but if the former she got a
smart stroke from the whip. This charming custom
matched well with the proceedings at the wedding
supper where It was the correct thing for the hus
band to tear a fowl to pieces with his fingers, throw
part of it over his shoulder and eat the rest. Some
times the Russian bride even presented her husband
with whip Of her own making Among barbarian
nations wives are generally seized by force, and
indeed he rs considered tame and cOnemptible fell
low who gets one in any other way. There Is
more or less fiction in the show OF violence
the bride very often being nothing 10th TO be caught
but inmany countries the chase of wife is just as
genuine and brutal pursuit the hunting of wild
game. Turnbull writing in 1905 saws that among the
Australians when man saw woman whom he
liked he told her to follow him. and if she refused he
knocked her down and carried her OFF. Some
of the tribes followed still moro peremp-
tory manner of paying addresses, the lover
| beginning his courtship by knocking his
| namorata senseless with his war club, and
dragging her away. The life of an Australian belle
was perpetual warfare and captivity, and il was
| rarely you could find well made woman who had
| not been repeatedly gashed and SCARED with the
spears and clubs OF her admirers Sometimes the
| young men used TO combine for wife-hunting eXpe-
ditions. Stealthily approaching by night the camp
where Inc OBJECTS InclI abictp Oho OA
| the ntruders would select girl twist the head of
his spear in her hair give it jerk to rouse her, and
| then haul her out into the bush while another
| huntsman held a weapon at her throat. She knew it
would be instant death to scream. and submitted
quietly TO be tied TO tree until the party had caught
all they wanted. In ancient Scandinavia rst-class
warrior dsdained TO get wife any other way than
by robbing another mans wedding procession. The
grOom's - st men" in those days really had some
thing to DO. The rights of women were, however.
respected TO this extent at least that part OF the
brides wedding outfit was a shield, sword, and AK,
20 be used against her husband in Of necessity.
Traces Of the old savage custom Of stealing cap
turing a wife survived long in the partly civilized
communities, and are not yet wholly extinct. In
some-as in Sparta-the lover pursued the woman on
horseback and took her after show Of violence.
This is still the fashion among the Kamucks. In
Ireland the custom of sezing wives and carrying
them of by force has hardly been hundred years
out of date.
1t would be interesting to trace the changes which
have been made in marriage customs by the gradual
elevation Of wOman's position and TO see what rem
nants Of the old brutal ideas are retained in the
fashions Of civilized communities at the present day.
but this formed no part of the plan of Mr.. Woods
book. 1t is a curious, fact however, that in China,
where woman's rank in the animal kingdom is
CSLCculcu 10 DO 30 UluCu lOWCI Iuau man >, Ll0
honors shown to q bride are of a very distinguished
character; and it is no less remarkable fact on the
other hand that the distinctly barbarous practice Of
buying and selling wives lasted longest in countries
of such advanced civilization England The French
caricaturist was not very far from right when he
represented John Bull selling his wife at Smithfeld
with halter around her neck. There was an old be-
lief that man escaped from all the nuptia obliga-
tiOns by selling his wife IN open market TO the high
est bidder; and Mr. Wood cites a sale of this kind
occurring as late as 1859 lie might have added that
wife was sold in England less than two years ago
though not at auctOn-and the scandalous affair
was reported in all the newspapers. We believe the
husband realized Ouly few shllings from the trans
action In feudal times Sir John de Camoys regu-
arly leased his wife to Sir William dc Paynel but
tho lady was not consenting party and the Courts
annulled the contract.
Among the strange customs, ancient and modern,
cited by Mr. Wood in connection with marriage, We
must not omit TO mention the old Jewish one Of
placing before the bride at the wedding banquet
hen and egg. The groom presented her with
small piece of the fowl and then the guests men and
women, scrambled for the rest and tore it to pieces
with their hands. The egg was thrown into some
bOdy's face-if possible Christian was made the Te-
cpient Of this favor At Mabar early in the present
century. the happy couple placed upon a throne
ana the gr0oms feet were washed with milk and
silver ring was placed upon his toe. After that
flowers were cast upon the heads Of the pair. In
Poland, during the last century, the friends OF a
betTothed maiden went hunting in order to bring
good luck. and before they went she was obliged to
show them her ankles. 1t is pleasant TO know that
oil the burdensome laws and customs were not i'm
posed upon the women, but the conduct of men also
mas IN all times been more or less strictly regulated
III Sparta, for instance, where celibaov was