II
A brief glance at some rites, analogous to those just referred to, as existing among some other peoples will not be without interest. The idea of “royalty” attaching to the bridal pair is seen in Morocco at the present day; the bridegroom is looked upon and treated as a sultan, and his bachelor friends act as his ministers (wazara)[327]. Among the Malays the bride and bridegroom are called Raja sari, “the sovereigns of the day,” and “it is a polite fiction that no command of their’s, during their one day of sovereignty, may be disobeyed[328].” Many similar examples could be given; the underlying idea is that by a change of identity[329],—that it is purely fictitious is no matter—the dangers which are conceived of, however vaguely, as attending those about to be joined in marriage, are mitigated. Westermarck says:
A very large number of marriage ceremonies spring from the feeling or idea that bride and bridegroom are in a state of danger, and therefore stand in need of purification and of special protection against magical influences and evil spirits;
in this class of customs he includes dancing[330]. Why dancing should be supposed to have this effect is another question to which, presumably, different answers will be given. For our own part, we are inclined to believe that at the bottom of it lies a connexion with the original idea and purpose of the sacred dance, viz. the imitation, and therefore the pleasing, of supernatural powers, as already pointed out (see [p. 22]); not that there was necessarily any consciousness of this; but from the earliest times dancing had had this purpose, and the custom continued without a reason for it being assigned. Not but what the rite as a marriage ceremony may, and doubtless did, have other purposes as well; but these may either have been superimposed, or what is quite possible, a different train of ideas gave rise to them. But behind them all lay, in the first instance, this propitiatory act performed in honour of some supernatural power. All festive dancing at weddings may be regarded as having originated from this. To quote Westermarck again:
Ceremonies which once had a purpose may, in course of time, become entirely meaningless, and yet continue to be practised; and ceremonies may also be direct expressions of emotional states, whether combined with a special purpose or not. Just as funeral rites and mourning observances, even when they are intended to protect the survivors against the dead man’s ghost or the contagion of death, are very largely similar to or identical with natural expressions of sorrow or grief, so the precautions taken at a wedding assume the shape of joyful performances, such as dancing, music, singing...[331].
Among these ceremonies which have become entirely meaningless, but are continued as a joyful or picturesque performance, was the sword-dance referred to in the Old Testament. This, as we have already noticed, is in all probability the relic of a rite which had the purpose of averting evil influences; it was a more aggressive means of combating these, the change of identity being a passive form serving the same purpose. But as the sword-dance had this combative purpose, any other weapon might have been equally efficacious; indeed, if, as we have reason to suppose, the sword-dance is but the latest form of a very ancient rite, we should expect to find that in its more primitive forms other weapons would be employed, for the sword was, comparatively speaking, a modern weapon. So that while, on the one hand, e.g. among the Druses of Syria, the sword-dance figures as a necessary rite at weddings[332], and among the Moroccans the bridegroom carries a sword as long as the marriage ceremonies continue[333], we find that in the ancient Indian ritual the bride when formally presented to the bridegroom at the wedding ceremony places a whip or an arrow in his hand[334]. That in some cases the carrying or presenting the weapon is unaccompanied by the dance need cause no surprise; they are but exceptions to the general rule, and it is made up for afterwards. An echo of the primitive rite is doubtless to be discerned among the Malayans; at a royal wedding a performance is given by dancing girls and fencers[335]; and at ordinary weddings during the marriage procession there is dancing and fencing to the accompaniment of music and singing[336].
There are various other wedding ceremonies, some accompanied by dancing and some not, which originally had, and often still have, the purpose of counteracting malign influences at the time of marriage; these influences are, or rather were, partly due to the belief in mysterious, vaguely-conceived dangers which the sexes reciprocally ascribed to each other[337], and partly to the strangeness of feeling generated by the knowledge that a new state of life was about to be entered upon which would bring about new experiences as regards oneself, and new relationships as regarded others. As to the former; it is very likely that the “Henna-dance,” which always takes place at weddings among the Malays, had the original purpose of counteracting the dangers alluded to, e.g., the evil eye, possibly; this dance takes its name from the ceremony of dabbing henna on the centre of the palm of the bride. Skeat, in describing the dance, says:
A picturesque feature of it is a small cake of henna, which is contained in a brazen cup and surrounded by candles. This cup is carried by the dancer who has to keep turning it over and over without letting the candles be extinguished by the wind arising from the rapid motion.
The step is called the “Henna-dance step,” and the tune accompanying it is called the “Henna-staining tune[338].” Doubtless this is an elaboration of the original form of the dance, and a further purpose has been superimposed—the turning of the cup without extinguishing the candles may be differently explained, though it must be a magical rite of some kind—but the henna on the palms certainly seems to point to a means of averting the evil eye.
As to the fears at entering upon a new state, we may be pardoned for quoting Westermarck once more, for he is our foremost authority on the whole subject. He writes:
A marriage implies not only that the parties enter into new relations to each other’s people, but very frequently that one of them, through the change of domicile, is actually transferred to the other one’s family group. And it implies other changes in the social grouping of people: either party passes from one social class into another, the bridegroom from the class of the bachelors to that of the married men, the bride from the class of the girls to that of the married women. This re-grouping also finds expression in the marriage ritual, as when the hair of the bride is arranged in the fashion of married women, or she ceremonially assumes the head-dress worn by them, or when the bride dances first with the unmarried girls and then with the married women, and the bridegroom first with the bachelors and then with the married men[339].
Here the dance is clearly in the nature of an initiatory ceremony into one class from another, and it has the effect of familiarizing each party with the new status and condition; it may, therefore, be regarded as serving a kind of prophylactic purpose.
This has taken us some way from the sword-dance; but it all really arises from this; for all that has been said points to the belief in the existence of undefined dangers in marriage, and the means to counteract these; and numberless other examples are available. But our main point here is to show how frequently, for whatever reasons, the dance has a part to play in the rites performed.