The day is hurrying fast away!"
Then follow encouragements to the bride to take the decisive step over the threshold, in the shape of substantial guarantees of her bridegroom's loyalty; and of course the elm and the ivy are pressed, for not the first time, into such service. More novel, save that the text of Catullus is here so corrupt that commentators have been left to patch it as they best may for coherence, is the stanza to the bridal couch. All that Catullus has been allowed by the manuscripts to tell us is that its feet were of ivory, which is very appropriate; but if the reader's mind is enlisted in the question of upholstery, it may be interested to know that collateral information enables one critic to surmise that the hangings were of silver-purple, and the timbers of the bedstead from Indian forests. But anon come the boys with the torches. Here is the veil or scarf of flame-colour, or deep brilliant yellow, capacious enough, as we learn, to shroud the bride from head to foot, worn over the head during the ceremony, and retained so till she was unveiled by her husband. Coincidently the link-bearers are chanting the hymenæal song, and at intervals, especially near the bridegroom's door, the rude Fescennine banter is repeated; whilst the bride-groom, according to custom, flings nuts to the lads in attendance, much as at a Greek marriage it was customary to fling showers of sweetmeats. The so-called Fescennine jests were doubtless as broad as the occasion would suggest to a lively and joke-loving nation;
