New-York tribune., 1901-01-06
MARRIAGE CUSTOMS.
THE SURVIVAL OF SOME ANCIENT IDEAS
WOOiNGS AND WEDDINGS IN MANY CIIMES
by Louise Jordan Min. With Many Ilustra.
Hons Octave, PIP. xx, 3l7 Herbert s. Stone

In its wooing and wedding markind has re-
tanned longest some OF its most striking and
primitive customs They have become a SUBJ
1ect OF scientific study, because they disclose
some OF the fundamental traits, impulses and
beliefs of humanity. Mrs. Min has not under
taken any scientific research in this feld-in
TACT she expressly disclaims the title of student
in any grave large sense" but she has
travelled much, and gives in this book the re-
suits Of careful observation. She covers a large
part or the civilized and uncivilized world but
SIZE lets il be understood that what she writes
OF she has seen, in every except the descrip-
uons OF the Esquimaus and the little known
races between Canton and MandaIay We cam
not altogether admire Mrs. Minis style-her
arch gayety is sometimes annoying and her
harping on the personal note is too persistent
There are also matters upon which she enarges
too freely and candidly, seeing that this is not a
scientlhc treatise. where such treatment would
have been perfectly natural but a book for
general reading. But the essential part of il is
the description, and that is uniformly vivid.
There are many illustrations, of quite unusual
Interest. all reproductions of photographs
Mrs. Min is struck with the strange SINH
larity of the marriage customs of people in
widely remote parts of the earth. OF these per-
haps the most widespread is that of marriage by
capture. Its survival takes different forms: thus
In the Malay peninsula the capture comes with
the marriage dance:
During it the bride breaks away, running her
heetest; the bridegroom chases her. If he cam
NOT eaten and bring her back before that part of
the dance is ended she need not marry him, nor
need she give the dOwry back. Should he have
the i'll luck TO stumble as he runs he must add
three sarOngs lshawl-like draperiesl to the
cOwry- Sometimes the chase is a water chase
the bride being given the fieeter canoe and a
good start. In one tribe the lover must swim
for his life. All of which is not to be under
stood too seriously. 1t is almost un-
fa9 Fn,s
chase her in vain as fOr satin clad English
bride TO say No at the altar.
1t is a far cry to Norway, but there find
that in several provinces the day after the
marriage the bride away and hides.
a great search ensues. When she is found and
caught she is carried TO her husbands home
with much ceremony and installed with great
state absolute mistress of his house.
In Brittany, too marriage by capture can still
be traced in "a wonderful little comedy" enacted
soon after dawn the wedding day, when the
husband comes to claim his bride bringing his
bachelor friends The house is locked and
barred The person who corresponds TO the
- ST man" pounds and demands admission; the
bagpipes play; for hour the party is kept
H3it.ng. Finally a window is opened and a
kinsman of the bride appears and parleys. The
parents finally pretend to yield, and the kinsman
comes out, but only to further paIley and with
ont the bride. Finally ne, too, pretends to yield.
ana re-enters the house, but returns with some
body else, % trick the bridegroom. Five times
he does this the sixth time he brings the bride,
and the comedy is ended. The Arabian maiden
is stolen likewise; having gained her fathers
consent her lover creeps behind her and throws
his cloak over her. the maiden making fent of
Try ing to escape which her married kinswomen
prevent her from doing.
= singular feature of marriage customs is the
defonnaticn, as We should consider it, practised
by and upon brides The Malay girl undergoes
ihe terrible ordeal of having her teeth filed on
the day before her marriage, to the accompani-
ment of elaborate ceremonies. They are filed
down to third fourth or sometimes even to a
smaller fraction of their natural length indie
scribaDly dilapidating the prettiest Of mouths
an1 causing eXcruciating and long continued
pain. The japanese brides formerly blackened
their tech and shaved off their eyebrows but
these dis6gurements have fallen into disuse
T2tsOoing, however, is frequent, a fitting
acornment Of an eXpectant Bridegroom. When
a Burmese girl reaches a manageable age her
ears are bored with great ceremony-"her first
step along the marriage path" What Mrs Min
SAYS about the Chinese women is especially in
tercsting at the present juncture. Much non
se1se she thinks, has been written about them
They are not ciphers, they not held in con-
tempt they are not treated with discourtesy