pay an entrance fee in money or spirits, is it allowed to enter. In some places the bargaining is renewed at the doors of the porch and of the common room, and additional payments must be made before the party is permitted to set foot within. After it has been at last ushered into the principal apartment, the bridegroom’s mother, and the women with her, immediately arrange on the table the eatables and drinkables they have brought with them, and all eat standing. While the others are eating, the parents of the bridegroom start off to invite the bride’s relations to the wedding.[1] At the same time the bride’s friends dress her in a wedding dress, and envelope her legs with linen bandages till she can scarcely walk. When finally decked out she is brought back into
- ↑ At Bugulminsk, after the bridegroom’s mother has laid out the eatables, before starting to invite the relations, she is led round the house by the bride’s people, and must leave a round loaf in every room.
At Teryshevsk (Simbirsk) the parents do not start off to invite the relations, but the future mother-in-law, while the others are eating, proceeds to a neighbouring house, where the bride is being dressed, and is accosted with these words: “Look, girls! is not the thunder rolling and lightning flashing, accompanied with white hailstones?” The mother-in-law replies: “Fear me not, be not alarmed. The thunder is not rolling, lightning is not flashing, hail is not falling. Thy mother-in-law is bringing an escort. Art thou beautiful and handsome? Art thou useful, and a lover of order? I have come to see thee and bring a whole party with me.” The bride replies: “Welcome, mother-in-law, welcome.” Her future mother-in-law then offers her a ladleful of wort with the right hand. The bride refuses to take it from the right hand, and will only accept it from the left hand. This the mother-in-law declines to do, and at last the girl gives way. Dancing succeeds this ceremony, and the mother-in-law, returning to the house of the bride’s father, thanks him for such a well dressed and dutiful daughter-in-law.
In Simbirsk, after the bridegroom and his party have arrived, the bride is taken by her friends to the relation’s house where she had taken refuge the day before (p. 431 note), and where she remains till fetched by the best man. Meanwhile, the bridegroom, who remains at the bride’s paternal house, hides himself.
