parent never dreams of making a formal complaint about the abduction of his daughter, as it would only be heard before the old men of the village, who look upon these marriages as quite natural. However, among the Erza they are becoming more and more rare, and it is only among the Moksha that marriage with abduction is a prevalent custom.
In the last three paragraphs Mainoff, who believed that marriage by capture or elopement, lises, was the old and sole mode of taking a wife formerly among the Mordvins, has, I think, put the matter too strongly; for elsewhere he incidentally mentions that, though the taking of a wife should have originated by lises, the wedding is held in the same manner as if it had happened with the consent of the parents, with the sole difference that the bride’s parents and relations must be appeased with a larger quantity of spirits and pure,[1] and Lepekhin[2] states that if the lad is overtaken he must pay for it with a fearful thrashing, or even with his life; but if he escaped he kept the bride, but had to pay the kalym, though he was allowed to do this by instalments. Capture or elopement is therefore only an incident in a marriage by purchase. However, Mainoff was told that fifty years ago marriages by simple capture, lises, took place, with which the matter ended, for there was no carouse.
§ 2. Wooing, as a formal act, is always done by proxy.[3] In the Penza government, if a young man has no special object of his affections, he sends spokesmen “to take a look” at some girl. He may even be present, but must not disclose the object of his visit. If the girl is attractive
- ↑ A kind of beer mixed with honey.
- ↑ Tagebiich d. Reise durch verschied. Provinz. d. Russ. Retches in 1768-9, p. 106.
- ↑ Baron v. Herberstein in 1549 (transl. by R. H. Major, i, 91) mentions that in Russia it was held to be dishonourable and a disgrace for a young man to address a girl in order that he might obtain her hand in marriage.
