The Part played by Water in Marriage Customs.
It does not seem to be easy to explain the part played by water in the marriage customs of different peoples; but there can hardly be any doubt as to the fact. The Bible mentions three cases where wives are found at wells: Gen. xxiv., 11; xxix., 2; and Exod. ii., 15. In the last instance Raschi, the classical commentator of the Bible and Babylonian Talmud, adds: "he learned it (i.e. to seek a wife at a well) from Jacob, who found for himself a wife at a pool." The other commentators (Ramban, Raschbam, Ibn-Ezra, Abi-Ezra) do not give any explanation of this passage. This practice was not confined to the Hebrews. Nestor, in his Chronicle, speaking of the early Slavonic tribes, says: "but the Drevlyans were living like beasts, like wild beasts; they killed one another, ate every impure thing, had no marriage, but used to steal girls at the water." Nestor goes on to say, that when the other Slavonic tribes had no regular marriage ceremonies (some of them had), they used to steal girls at dances. It is possible that the Drevlyans, owing to the inaccessibility of their sites, and to the rough way of living, preserved old customs better than the other tribes. In the time of Nestor, indeed, they were not yet for the most part converted to Christianity. In a Little Russian song, a mother tells her daughter not to go to a well and not to look on young men. I think, in this instance, there is no need of explanation, for it is clear that the well may easily become a meeting-place of young people, as it is admirably described in La fortune de Rougons of Émile Zola. Every one can see that it is so in the villages of Little Russia, Roumania, Asia Minor, and Palestine, where it was noticed in the fifth century a.d. This custom is further exemplified in the Indian story of The Two Friends, given by Miss S. M. Taylor in Folk-Lore, vol. vi., p. 399, and my parallels from Alif Leilah we Leilah in Folk-Lore, vol. vii., p. 199. Some points in the story of The Three Damsels of Baghdad (Alif Leilah we Leilah, vol. i., p. 24, edition of 1305 A.H.) could be compared, but unfortunately the scene is too gross to be quoted here. The same is the case with the frame-story. All the customs quoted above are comparatively transparent. They are the primitive customs. But besides these we have some developments of the customs, where the primitive
