Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/462

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456
Marriage Customs of the Mordvins.

that, if he was superior in these respects to his pursuers, he gained his object by virtue of these good qualities; the stereotyped task set by custom had been victoriously accomplished.

The incident in § 2, that the bride is only to be shown on payment of a fee, is quite Turkish; see Vámbéry, op. cit., p. 245.

The Carouse.[1] § 4.—1. Assembly of relations at bridegroom’s (i.e., at his father’s) house. 2. Prayers and offerings to the household gods. 3. Drive to bride’s home with provisions and strong drink. 4. Received with bread and salt. 5. Hand-striking.[2] 6. Prayers and offerings to the gods. 7. Feasting and drinking [at the expense of bridegroom’s parents.[3] Bride not present[4]]. 8. Bridegroom’s relations make acquaintance with bride. 9. Bride gives presents [bridegroom not present]. 10. Return home.

Variant. § 4a.—1. Bridegroom [if of same village as bride] and his father go to bride’s home with supplies.

  1. This seems to answer to the Chuvash “driving with presents”. After the wooing, and the negotiations about the kalym, the bridegroom and his parents visit the bride, and pay the rest of the kalym. They bring wheaten bread with them. The bride’s father places this, with honey, on a dish, washes himself, and goes with a loaf and three ladlefuls of honey into the courtyard. Here he prays towards the sun to Thore. He offers another loaf and honey to the mother of the gods, and to all the divinities in whom he has confidence. The bride’s mother gives her new relations shirts or linen cloths, and entertains them and the neighbours with food and drink, when they also dance and sing. They then fix the day for the wedding, and separate. (Georgi, Reisen in Russland (in 1770), ii, 852.)
  2. A Russian custom; see Ralston, p. 265. At Lett courtships, the bride’s father and the suitor join hands when the girl has given her consent (Kohl, p. 382). As the Magyar word for betrothal means “clasping the hands”, the Magyars have probably borrowed the custom from their Slav or Teuton neighbours.
  3. With the Kalmuks, too, though the feast of betrothal is held at the tent of the bride’s parents, it is at the bridegroom’s expense. (B. Bergmann, Nomad. Streifereien unter d. Kalmuken, iii, 146.)
  4. Possibly because it is supposed to be no affair of hers, but merely of the respective parents.