Very often capture and purchase are found united in such a way that they seem almost to be contending with each other for the mastery.[566] This union occurs in two general forms: either the woman elopes or is carried off without the guardian's consent, and a reconciliation is subsequently effected through payment of the bride-price or the rendering of a composition; or else the stipulation of the price is made before the abduction. In the latter case it is plain that we are dealing merely with ceremonial capture; in the former case the significant fact is that we have to do with a breach of the law.[567] A price is paid for the stolen woman because, like other property, she has an economic value; or a penalty is rendered in order to escape the blood-feud. Frequently, however, even when abduction occurs without the consent or knowledge of the girl's friends, the subsequent procedure in arranging the price or the penalty is strictly regulated by custom; and this fact may perhaps be regarded as a further proof that the forms under consideration, in special instances, represent a transition from capture to contract. Among the Galela and Tobelorese,[568] for example, when a man wishes a woman of a hostile tribe or family, he causes her to be abducted, as she goes out for water or wood, by twenty or more of his female friends, who bind her, if she resists, and bear her away to his house. Should the relatives of the girl attempt a rescue by force, the villagers assemble and try to effect a reconciliation. Pending the stipulation of the bride-money, the girl is allowed to escape to her home, where she is carefully watched. On the third day the friends assemble to discuss the price. If the woman has not lived with the man, she may then refuse him; otherwise the payment of the price is finally arranged.[569] In case of elopement it is the custom among the same people for the lovers to fly to the forest or to take refuge in a "prahu" on the sea, where they remain a month. On their return they are received in the house of the girl's parents. If the lover pays the bride-money, the woman follows him to his house; otherwise he must remain with his wife, and the children legally belong to the mother.[570] With the Bataks of Sumatra good form requires that the bridegroom should leave behind a weapon, a piece of clothing, or some similar article as a token that he has abducted the bride. Thereupon, when the bride-money is paid the marriage is regarded as legally complete. Should no token be left, however, the rape is illegal and the culprit may receive punishment.[571] [565] MCLENNAN, _op. cit._, I, 41, 42, as evidence of wife-capture, gives the following stanzas, taken from GREY'S _Travels_, II, 313: