[324] §§ 533, 1095 ff., 1161 ff.
[325] Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxv, 295 (South Australia); Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia, p. 531 f.
[326] Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xiii, 296 (Queensland); Howitt, loc. cit.; Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, pp. 221, 223, and Native Tribes of Northern Australia, p. 361.
[327] H. Webster, Primitive Secret Societies, chap. ii ff.
[328] The office of sponsor exists in embryonic form in many savage communities; for boys the sponsor is the father or other near relation, for girls an old woman. The duties of savage sponsors usually continue only during the period of initiation.
[329] Westermarck, Human Marriage; H. N. Hutchinson, Marriage Customs in Many Lands; Ch. Letourneau, The Evolution of Marriage and of the Family; Crawley, The Mystic Rose; and the references in G. E. Howard's History of Matrimonial Institutions, i, chaps. i-iv; cf. Hartland, Primitive Paternity.
[330] See below, § 429 ff.
[331] Similar restrictions existed in Greece and Rome. An Athenian citizen was not allowed to marry a foreign woman. In Rome connubium held in the first instance between men and women who were citizens, though it might be extended to include Latins and foreigners. In India marriage came to be controlled by caste. These local and national rules gradually yielded to rules based on degrees of consanguinity. Marriage between near relations was looked on with disfavor in Greece and Rome and by the Hebrews, and the Old Testament law on this point has been adopted (with some variations) by Christian nations. For the Arab customs see W. R. Smith, Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, chap. iii.
[332] Cf. Crawley, The Mystic Rose, p. 462 ff.; W. R. Smith, Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, 1st ed., p. 62 ff.; Hartland, Primitive Paternity, chaps. v, vi.
[333] In some cases, among the Todas of South India for example, the defloration takes place shortly before the girl reaches the age of puberty (Rivers, The Todas, p. 703); more generally it is performed when she reaches this age. This difference of time is not essential as regards the significance of the ceremony.