"Say, Hesper, say, what fire of all that shine In Heaven's great vault more cruel is than thine? Who from the mother's arms her child can tear-- The child that clasps her mother in despair; And to the youth, whose blood is all aflame, Consigns the virgin sinking in her shame! When towns are sacked, what cruelty more drear."[527]
At the door the bride makes a last effort to resist; but she is lifted forcibly over the threshold, and even in the house she is held fast by the arms, until at last she is fully initiated into the sacred rites of the bridegroom's house.[528] It is noteworthy that the custom of dragging the bride into the husband's house, or of lifting her over the threshold, exists even now in many places. It appears in Africa; among the Ests, Kalmucks, and Bedouins; the Indians of southern California, and elsewhere in North America.[529] In "China, when the bridal procession reaches the bridegroom's house, the bride is carried into the house by a matron, and lifted over a pan of charcoal at the door."[530]
[523] DIONYSIUS, II, 30; PLUTARCH, _Lives_, I, 133, 134 (Lycurgus); HERODOTUS, Book VI, 65; RAWLINSON, III, 377; MÜLLER, _Doric Races_, II, 278; SMITH, _Dict. of Ant._, II, 130-38; DARGUN, _op. cit._, 99, 100; MCLENNAN, _op. cit._, I, 44 ff., 12 ff.; LUBBOCK, _op. cit._, 81.
[524] "Feriis autem vim cuiquam fleri piaculare est, ideo tunc vitantur nuptiae, in quibus vis fieri virginibus videtur."--MACROBIUS, _Sat._, 1, 15; _cf._ DARGUN, _op. cit._, 100.
[525] The _domum deductio_ was the second act in the patrician marriage ceremony of _confarreatio_, and in this case it appears to have been a necessary form. But it was probably also observed, as a nuptial custom, in connection with plebeian free marriages as well as in the _coemptio_: ROSSBACH, _Die römische Ehe_, 92 ff., 116, 145, 155, 328 ff.; _idem_, _Hochzeits- und Ehedenkmäler_, 39-118. _Cf._ MARQUARDT, _Privat-Leben_, I, 38; SMITH, _Dict. of Ant._, II, 142; FUSTEL DE COULANGES, _Ancient City_, 55 ff.; DARGUN, _op. cit._, 100 ff.
[526] "Rapi simulatur virgo exgremio matris aut si ea non est, ex proxima necessitudine, cum ad virum trahitur, quod videlicet ea res feliciter Romulo cessit."--FESTUS, _De verb. sig., s. v. Rapi_.