other people’s barns, picked up here and there a grain and carried it to the father-in-law’s farm; they ground it between two coals, sowed it in a besom; in the besom they brewed beer; they baked pies and brought them to us here; devilish bad are the pies, the cakes are worth a farthing. Eat, consume our pies; our pies are like the wheaten bread of Murom, but thy pies are like the oven-rakes of old women.”
When the unlucky bridegroom’s father has reached the anteroom the girls will not make way for him, but surround him, shake his skirts, and again sing the thoroughly Russian song of abuse of the father-in-law. On the third day of “holy pies” the bridegroom’s father goes alone to the bride’s house with half a shtoff (3½ pints) of spirits and a barrel of beer, and then the day for the wedding is fixed.
§ 5. The day before the wedding is called “the weeping day” by the Erza of Teryshevsk (Simbirsk). On the evening before it the bride’s relations assemble at her house. Some heat the bath for her, others plait her hair into a tail, but she herself weeps bitterly. After her friends have washed her and loosened her hair, they sit down to supper together, and sing marriage songs. No men are present. The bride and her friends do not go to bed, but pass the night sewing handkerchiefs and singing songs. Before dawn on the “weeping day” the bride goes to her parents and on her knees requests their blessing. When this has been given, she goes outside by the back door, bows profoundly towards the east five times, saying:
“Bless me, O father; bless me, O mother; bless me, O humid earth-mother; bless me, heaven and earth. I now go to seek a good blessing.”
She then returns home, sits in the centre of the room and weeps, surrounded by her friends, who also weep and sing songs. Afterwards the girls carry her to a neighbour’s—in Arzamas (Nizhegorod) she is carried on a felt cover by men. On passing the outer gate she again bows five times, and seeing that it is beginning to dawn, recites:
