Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1885-06-10

most peculiar, all he earns by his work
becomes their property, and IL they get
tired of him they can send him away
without a cent, as poor AZ when he
came. In the alliance on terms OF
equality each contributes il an equal
degree to the common stock, and IL the
marriage proves inharmonious q sep
aration Is effected and the goods and
all that has been gained by the common
labor are divided equally between the
parties and each departs to seek new
and moro congenial bonds.
MARRIAGE AND CEREMONIES.
Savage tribes seldom have any mar
rage ceremony worth mentioning, and
when they do IL is of the simplest de-
scription. In Ceylon there are two
kinds of marriage; in the one the woman
goes to the mans hut, this fact consti-
| tutlng the marriage, and in the other the
man goes to live in the woman's hut
and with her relatives, thus forming
q connection somewhat similar to the
Sumatra marriage already alluded to.
Among the Turkomans, the husband Is
| not allowed to visit his wife save by
stealth for year after marriage, and
| many other nations have more or less
strongly marked relics of the same Gus
tom. Among some tribes of Arabia the
bride, after marriage, runs away to her
fathers house in the evening, and some
times these flights continue for months
before she will consent to remain per-
manontly at her husbands home. In
some of the South African tribes, the
husband is not allowed to see the face
of his wife till the first child is born,
while, according TO Xenophon and Stra-
DO, a similar custom prevailed among
the Spartans and Cretans The first
| Spanish missionaries who went to Cali
fornia, found no word in the Indian lam
guages to correspond to the word mar
riage, there being no ceremony about
the matter at all, the pair simply agree
| ing on the alliance and the carrying 1t
out without consulting anybody. Bruce
says that in spite of the fact that Abys-
synia is ostensibly Christian country,
| there was in his time no ceremony OF
marriage in use among the people OF
that land, while the Hottcntots Of Africa
not only have no ceremony, but have no
word to designate the difference be-
| tween married and an unmarried
woman.
MARRIAGE BY CAPTURE.
Marriage by capture was n favorite
method of getting wife in the old days
when wives were valuable for the work
they did rs slaves, and there arc some
rea ION for believing that, at some time
or other, it has been practiced by
neatly all nations. The Rom1n ms I'M
doubleday used this method of provid-
ing themselves with hclp-meets in that
little affair with the Sabines, and his
torical evidences exist to show that the
Greeks were equally INSCRIPTIONS. In
Australia, among the natives, the gal
liant lover provides himself with good,
stout club and waits in the bushes near
the home of his Dulcinca till she is UNI
protected, when he knocks her down
with the club and carries her off on his
shoulders before she RECEIVERS enough
to make resistance. This is taken as q
matter of course, and so well establish
ed is the custom among these savages
that 1t is played as game among the
children. As tribes of savages either
, became more numerous or more civil
lied, so that there was no longer any
need for the forcciblc capture of wife,
the ceremony of capture remained, as
such things do, long after its signifi-
canoe had departed. In his book on
Central Asia, Campbell says that: "On
one occasion l heard loud cries from q
village close at hand, and fearing some
quarrel, rode to the spot, and there saw
q man bearing on his back something
covered with n largo scarlet cloth; he
was surrounded by twenty or thirty
young fellows, and by them protected
f,A. -. atN all, L
large number of young women. On
seeking an explanation of this novel
scene, was told that the man had just
been married, and his burden was his
bride, whom he was conveying to his
own village. Her friends, as is the GUS
tom, were seeking to regain possession
of her, and hurled sticks and stones at
the head of the devoted groom till he
reached the confines of his village"
Throughout nearly all Central Asia,
some relics of this custom are found,
sometimes the bride being mounted on
horseback and the would-be groom
forced to ride after her; sometimes the
suit being pressed by means of foot
race, and sometimes the custom taking
the form of a regular scuffle between
the parties of the contract. Among the
Tartars, the marriage is always cele-
brated by q sham-fight between the
groom's friends and the friends of the
bride. All cases, however, having orig
mated in the same way, and having the
same idea ut the bottom.
NEW ZEALAND COUNTING.
In New Zealand it is customary to
have mock scuiiie even after the mar
riage, the custom being no doubt a
relic of the time when the scullle was
real and in earnest. Yates gives a
good example in describing wedding
he witnessed: There was little oppo.
sition TO tie wedding, but not till it was
over as Is the custom here. The brides
mother came to mo the preceding after
noon and said she was well pleased that
her daughter was going to be married
to Pehau, but that she must be angry
about it with her mouth in the presence
of strangers, lest the natives come and
take away all her possessions and de-
stroy all her crops. To prevent this the
mother acted with policy. AS was re-
turning from the church with the bride
and bridegroom, she met the procession
and began to assail us all furiously.
She put on n most terrific countenance,
threw her garments about and tore her
hair like fury, then said to me: 'Hah,
|, you white missionary; you are worse
than the devil. You first make slave
lad of your son by redeeming him from
his master, and then marry him to my
daughter, who is lady. / will tear
your eyes out The old woman, suit
ing the action to the word, feigned q
scratch at my face, at the same saying
in an undertone that il was all mouth,
and that she did not intend what she
said. l told 1 would stop her mouth
with blanket She replied: That j:
all wanted. wanted to get blanket
and so 1 made all this noise The
whole affair went off remarkably well
after this; all seemed to enjoy them
selves, and every one was satisfied"
: AN AFRICAN WEDDING.