The prevalence of wife-capture and the extent to which the symbol of force in marriage ceremonies appears among tribes and races in the various stages of development, have given rise to numerous speculations and theories relative to the origin of these “singular phenomena.” Notable among the works dealing with this subject are _Primitive Marriage_, by Mr. J. F. McLennan, and the _Origin of Civilization_, by Sir John Lubbock, both of which works followed closely the publication of _Das Mutter-recht_ by Herr Bachofen. As at the time these works were published the fact of man’s descent from the lower orders of life had not been established, and as nothing was then known of the origin and development of organized society it is not remarkable that theories concerning the early relations of the sexes should prove worthless except perhaps to show the extent to which established prejudices may warp the judgment and dwarf the intellectual faculties even of those who are honestly seeking after truth. The avowed object of Mr. McLennan’s volume was to trace the origin of wife-capture which is found to exist either as a legal symbol in marriage ceremonies, or as a stern reality among peoples which have not yet reached civilized conditions. This writer declares: “In the whole range of legal symbolism there is no symbol more remarkable than that of capture in marriage ceremonies.” After setting forth numerous examples to prove the prevalence of wife-capture among uncivilized tribes and races, and after denouncing as absurd the theories relative to the symbol of force entering into the marriage ceremonies in Sparta and in Rome, Mr. McLennan observes: The question now arises, what is the meaning and what the origin of a ceremony so widely spread that already on the threshold of our inquiry the reader must be prepared to find it connected with some universal tendency of mankind? Mr. McLennan’s answer to his own query is as follows: We believe the restriction on marriage to be connected with the practice in early times of female infanticide which rendering women scarce led at once to polyandry within the tribe and the capture of women from without. In another portion of this work it has been shown that although marriage was restricted within the gens, the earliest form of organized society, this restriction did not extend to the tribe. Marriage was forbidden among closely related groups. The gentes coalesced to form the tribe. Although a man might not marry within his own gens, he was not forbidden to marry within the tribe.