The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1885-02-27


soon be reconciled to her situation 1t
is evident that this scene was also
relic of custom of which the signif-
canoe had perhaps been lost even by
those engaged in it.
ADVANTAGES OF CAPTURE.
The advantages of a 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
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
wing when there is no reason for
them, and when, in fact, they consti-
tute a serious inconvenience. Many
tribes in India, for example, are di-
vided into clans, and no man may mar
ry woman of the same clan, while the
rule seems to prevail to some extent, at
least, in Tartary, among the Circas-
work on China, says that marriage be-
tween persons Of the same surname is
forbidden, and this rule includes all
male descendants forever. In so vast
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. SIN connection with
these crests," says Richardson, ''some
important points of Indian character
are seen. The relationship existing be-
tween persons of the same crest is near
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 q 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
inexplicable. There is, for example,
custom prevalent in many quarters of
preparing 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
i. the bride rather than by any one else,
might be mystery did we not know
that there was once custom among the
Romans of marriage by confarreatio, or
eating together, which consisted in the
preparation of banquet, portion of
which, and in particulars cake was pre-
pared by the hands of the bride. So
also in New England, in former times,
it was the custom not to allow a young
Puritan woman to be married till she
could slice loaf of warm lightbread
without creasing it. Among the Iroquois
Indians, there was once a custom of
marriage 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, aud 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
deep meaning in the honeymoon, when
the husband and wife go on tour to
enjoy their newly-found happiness.
According to the speculations, this
month OF bliss is relic of the time when
marriages 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
meaning, but that it was once reality,
ana pretty solemn reality, too, but
now followed from the inability of men
to break from the customs of their fore
fathers. In many parts of the continent
OF Europe it is still the custom toslift
the bride over the door of her new
home, and on no account to let her
touch the threshold with her feet. This
also, say the philosophers, is relic OF
| the days when men stole their wives
from the resistance of the latter, the
custom surviving when its signii cance
has been lost. In several of the country
districts of Europe it is not considered
etiquette for newly-married man to
speak to his father-in-law and mother
in-law for some time after the wedding,
and this peculiar practice is believed to
have had its origin in the necessity, in
former times, the married man was fire.
quently under of evading the society of
those estimable persons in order that
he might not be compelled to answer
awkward questions as to the where
abouts of their daughter.
THE SHOE AND THE RING.
| Every one has seen superstitious per-
sons cast an old shoe after the departing
carriage containing a newly-wedded
pair, but few have Investigated the orr
gin of this custom or thought of it at
all perhaps, save as 3 superstition.
Travellers in Central Asia have noticed
the same thing there, and the probable
ity is that it is also reminder of mar
riage by capture. When the bride was
stolen away it was customary for the
relatives to use in hostility any missile
that came handy. When the stealing
ceased to be a reality and became a
form the missiles ceased to be danger
Gus, and finally the sandal, being the
most convenient, was thrown as an en-
blem. In this country rice is also some
times thrown after the married couple,
the custom coming to us from China,
and the Chinese getting it, perhaps,
from Central Asia and India, where the
rice is not thrown, but is sent in little
bag from the house of the brides father
to the house of the bridegroom. This
practice is also survival of the time
when the brides clothing and food
were sent after her in order that in her
new home she might not suffer from
! want before her new husband had met