not send thee on my business. Give me thy good blessing now that I am going among strange people. Bless me at a strange father’s and mother’s house. Just look, dear father, towards the open field; behold the kind sun through the window. On the open field grows a lovely birch, in the sky shines the kind sun, variegated leaves are fluttering in the wind, by wind and storm they are blown down to the ground. Stop, father, stop! Look not at the kind sun, gaze not at the lovely sun. The real sun shines not, a real white barked birch is not growing. Thy child stands before thee. Variegated leaves are not fluttering in the wind, are not shaken to the ground by violent gusts. Hot tears are falling from the face of thy child. Stop, father, stop! Fear me not, my kind father, be not alarmed, my darling father. For thy bread, thy salt, thy drink, thy food, thy teaching, I fall down at thy dear feet, I kiss thy precious hand. I do not mind spoiling my gala-dress. I sink down at thy feet. Give me thy blessing. I keep kissing thy hands, I do not spare myself. Bless me, my father, to live with a stranger, to do the work of a stranger.”
The bride now falls at her father’s feet, lets her head fall on his knees and kisses his hands. He takes up a holy picture, sets it on his daughter’s head, and says: “God bless thee, and I too bless thee.” She then kisses her father and walks towards her mother, repeating the words: “Now I go to my dear mother. Disperse, stand aside, good friends and neighbours, now I go to the stove-mother; they say mothers stand near the stove-mother.” Her mother, in fact, is standing near the stove, and replies: “Come, my child, come, my dove, come, my darling. Come, that you may attain your desire. Thy mother sits near the stove-mother. Come, I will embrace thee to my heart.” After receiving her mother’s blessing, her friends take her up under the arms and carry her to a neighbouring house. In the street she recites: “My father did not need me; my mother was angry at me; they blessed me to live among strangers, to do the work of strangers.” On reaching the house her friends undress her, and all go to rest thoroughly exhausted.
