[474] "Ein zweites, bemerkenswertes Factum ist, dass es vergeblich wäre ein Volk finden zu wollen, von welchem direkt erwiesen werden könnte, es schliesse gegenwärtig sämmtliche Ehen auf dem Wege des Raubes, oder habe sie jemals nur auf diesem Wege geschlossen. Daher kann nicht mit voller Sicherheit behauptet werden, der Frauenraub sei je einzige Eheschliessungsform gewesen. Um so wahrscheinlicher ist es, dass er gewöhnliche, vorherrschende Eheschliessungsform war, da sich nur unter dieser Voraussetzung die allgemeine Anwendung der Entführungssymbolik bei den einzelnen Völkern erklären lässt."--DARGUN, _Mutterrecht und Raubehe_, 79, 80. [475] POST, _Familienrecht_, 137, 138. KOHLER also regards capture as a general stage preceding that of wife-purchase: "Studien," _ZVR._, V, 336; _idem_, "Indisches Ehe- und Familienrecht," _ibid._, _ZVR._, III, 342 ff.; and such also is the view of LIPPERT, _Geschichte der Familie_, 42 ff., 44, 95-118. Nevertheless, a careful study of the facts makes it almost certain that the significance of wife-stealing as a sociological element has been greatly exaggerated, and its true relation to marriage strangely misunderstood.[476] It is perfectly natural that savage or barbarous races should seize women as a part of the ordinary spoils of war. Everything portable becomes the prey of the victor. "The taking of women," to repeat the forcible words of Spencer, "is manifestly but a part of this process of spoiling the vanquished." They are "prized as wives, as concubines, as drudges."[477] [476] Such is the view of LETOURNEAU in his able discussion of this subject: "Si pourtant l'on ne peut se dispenser d'étudier spécialement le mariage par capture, c'est qu'on lui a fait jouer en sociologie un rôle capital."--_L'évolution du mariage_, 110 ff. [477] SPENCER, _Principles of Sociology_, I, 650. Accordingly, it is not difficult to collect examples of the actual capture of women to serve as slaves, mistresses, or wives at the pleasure of the captor. Among the aboriginal American tribes, we are told, the practice is originally found in its "greatest perfection."[478] From Cape Horn to Hudson's Bay women are regarded as legitimate booty. The Horse Indians of Patagonia fight with each other, tribe against tribe, the issues of victory in every case being the "capture of women and the slaughter of men." The Patagonian Oens, or Coin-men, make systematic excursions every year at the time of the "red-leaf" to "plunder Fuegians of their women, dogs, and arms."[479] It is even reported of the Caribs that they depend so much upon the securing of foreign wives in war that nowhere do the women speak the same language as the men,[480] and a similar statement is made concerning the Brazilian Guaycurûs[481] and some other peoples.[482] But in North America the capturing of women for wives has nearly disappeared. [478] MCLENNAN, _Studies_, I, 31 ff.