The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1885-02-27

world. but particularly in Africa.
Astley's Collection of Voyages gives a
singular illustration Of wedding Gus
toms in Futa in West Africa 'After
all other preliminaries are arranged,
one difficulty remains, how the young
man shall get his bride home, for the
women relations take on terribly and
guard the door of the house to prevent
her being taken away. At last, by the
bridegroom's presents and generosity,
their grief Is assauged. He then pro-
vides a friend, well-mounted, to carry
her of, but as soon as she is on horse
back their lamentations are renewed.
and they rush in to dismount her. How
ever, the man is generally successful.
and rides off with his bride TO his house
prepared for her." Gray, the African
traveller. gives an equally peculiar incl
dent happening among the Mandingoes
of the West Coast. Gone wishing to
marry young girl at Kayaye applied
to her mother, who consented to his OBJ
tanning her in any way he could. Ac-
cordingly, when the poor girl was en-
ployed in preparing some rice for sup
per. she was seized by her intended
husband, assisted by three or four of his
companions, and carried off by force.
She made much resistance, by biting,
scratching, kicking and roaring most
bitterly. Many. both men and women,
who witnessed the affair, some of them
her own relatives, only laughed, and
consplod her by saying that she would
soon be reconciled to her situation" 1t
is evident that this scene was also a
relic of custom of which the signifi-
canoe had perhaps been lost even by
those engaged in it.
ADVANTAGES OF CAPTURE.
The advantages of captured wife
over any other kind are obvious. When
a savage has captured a wife, she is
away from her own people, has no
mother, and he is not afflicted with a
mother-in-law, she has no relatives
handy to make trouble between them,
and he is relieved from the necessity of
seeing a swarm of people put up"
with him at times when he is neither
ready nor willing for their company.
But it is not little singular TO see evil
dences of the custom of capture sur
viving when there is no reason for
them, and when, in fact they consti-
tute serious Inconvenience. Many
tribes in India, for example, are di-
vided into clans, and no man may mar
ry a woman of the same clan, while the
rule seems to prevail to some extent, ut
least, in Tartary, among the Circas-
slams and other nations. DAVIS, in his
work on Chine, says that marriage be-
tween persons of the same surname is
forbidden, and this rule includes all
male descendants forever. In so vast
a population. there are not more than
hundred surnames, and the embarrass-
ments that arise from so. strict a law
must be considerable. Some of the
tribes of Canadian Indians are divided
into clans, and there are totems or
standards which are common to all the
tribes. The crests are the whale, the
porpoise, the eagle. the coon, the wolf
and the frog. ''In connection with
these crests." says Richardson, 'some
important points of Indian character
are seen. The relationship existing be-
er than that between members of the
same tribe, which is shown by this. that
the members of the same tribe may in
termarry, but those of the same crest
may not do so under any circumstances.
That is: A whale may not marry
whale, but whale may marry a frog,
and the like"
THE BRIDEL-CAKE.
Even at the present day there are sew
eral ceremonies which, without the
light of historical research. would be
There is, for example, a
custom prevalent in many quarters of
bride s-cake, which, at the
wedding feast, must be always cut by
the bride. Exactly why there should be
such cake, or why it should be cut by
the bride rather than by any one else,
might be a mystery did we not know
that there was once custom among the
Romans of marriage by confarreatio, or
eating together, which consisted in the
of a banquet, a portion of
which, and in particular cake was pre-
pared by the hands of the BRIDE. So
also in New England, in form n times,
it was the custom not to allow young
Puritan woman to be married till she
could slice a loaf of warm lightbread
without creasing it. Among the Iroquois
Indians, there was once a custom of
by eating together, the sole
ceremony consisting in the bride allow
ing the groom to partake of feast
which she had prepared. This exercise
was sometimes varied, when there were
several claimants for the hand of the
young woman, by her calling them to-
gether on a given occasion, and after
they had all eaten, given the one whom
she had chosen a particular cake which
she had prepared for the purpose, which
both she and all the contestants under
stood to be the signal of her choice, and
they considered themselves bound by
the act of eating together to defend the
chosen man in his right to his wife.
THE HONEYMOON.
The social scientists think they see a
deep meaning in the honeymoon, when
the husband and wife 60 on tour to
enjoy their newly-fouud happiness.
to the specu!ations, this
month OF bliss is relic of the time when
were effected by capture, and
when, after the capture was made, the
husband was compelled to hide his wife
from her relatives, and also, sometimes
to withdraw himself to escape their
wrath. The scientists say that the Gus
tom survives long after it has lost its
but that it was once a reality,
ana a pretty solemn reality, too, but
now followed from the inab lity of men
to break from the customs of their fore
fathers. In many parts OF the continent
of Europe it is still the custom to lift
l. =. Al L