in the neighbourhood of Beirut, at which during the wedding procession a sword-dance took place; it was performed by two young men, friends of the bridegroom; they were very lightly clad in light-blue _kumbâz_ with white turban. Each held a small round shield made of hide and a sword; they fought in rhythmic time, smiting each other’s shields, and moving forward the whole time with the procession[314]. Among the Bedouin Arabs again, according to Doughty[315], a sword-dance forms one of the ceremonies at weddings; here, too, it is performed by friends of the bridegroom. This is also the case among the Moslems in Palestine[316]. The object and meaning of this sword-dance, by whomsoever performed, is difficult to ascertain. It is held, and at first sight the contention seems partly justified, that we have here a relic of the very ancient custom of marriage by capture; but apart from the fact that the sword in the hand of the _bride_ scarcely bears this out, grave doubts exist as to whether there ever was such a custom[317]. There are reasons for believing that this dance may originally have had a different purpose altogether. The subject is far too large and intricate to go into here, but Crawley has shown by numerous examples that certain evil influences are supposed to be abroad at the time of marriages, and that these have to be warded off by various means[318]. To give but one or two of these examples: “Amongst the Bheels and Bheelalahs the groom touches the ‘marriage shed’ with a sword.” This, like the custom among the Bechuanas of the bridegroom throwing an arrow into the hut before he enters to take his bride, is done in order to scare away evil spirits or other harmful influences; this is also the reason, as Crawley points out, of the old Roman custom of a bridegroom combing the bride’s hair with a spear, the _coelibaris hasta_. So that it is quite conceivable that the sword-dance is a relic of the custom of warding off what are supposed to be invisible foes who gather around at the time of marriages[319]. A dance of another kind, but which may also be a relic of the same custom, is mentioned by Dalman as existing among the Bedouin Arabs. When the bride comes into the house of the bridegroom she performs a dance in slow movement while holding a lighted candle in each hand with outstretched arms; she turns in all directions so as to appear like a star[320]. A few details may now be given of the dance as a marriage rite among the Jews of post-biblical times who have in innumerable ways kept up customs dating from time immemorial. We are not thinking here, any more than in the preceding examples, of the ordinary dancing at weddings which invariably took place as an expression of festive enjoyment; our concern is with ritual dances which, originally at any rate, had a specific and serious object, justifying the epithet “sacred” being applied to them.