hold god is put into tilt-cart [stands the whole way, supported by mother-in-law[1] and friend]. 7. Wedding cortège halts at village boundary; bride gives presents; best man distributes drink. 8. Bride falls at horses’ feet; gives them ribbons and money. 9. Cortège moves off [bride still resisting] to church; [bride sometimes thanks horses]. Variant.—In last century, bride escorted to church half-way by her relations and rest of journey by bridegroom’s friends alone, who had come to meet her there.[2] 10. Marriage solemnised after Russian rite;[3] bride refuses to kiss bridegroom;[4] his father assists him. 11. Bridal party drives to bridegroom’s, where best man detaches body of bride’s carriage.[5] 12. Bridegroom received with derisive songs by girls; slinks in by side entrance and hides in nuptial outhouse. 13. Bride carried[6] into common room and covered with hops.[7] Variant.—Bride walks in, carrying her father’s
- ↑ With the Letts the bride is seated in her mother-in-law’s lap, and her bridesmaid is at her side. (Kohl, p. 381.)
- ↑ A very old custom, probably, for Vámbéry (op. cit., 239) mentions that though a Kirgiz bride is sometimes escorted part of the way to her husband’s tent by her youngest brother, yet she must appear quite alone at the aul of her father-in-law.
- ↑ In Lepekhin’s account (op. cit., p. 104) there is no mention of going to church, and he states that the whole ceremony of marriage consisted in this: the bride’s father (at his own house) took his daughter by the hand, while her mother took up bread and salt, and then these and the daughter were handed to the father and mother of the bridegroom, who seems not to have been present.
- ↑ Mentioned by Le Brun (op. cit., p. 82) as a Russian usage.
- ↑ Perhaps an old Slav custom. The Bœotians conducted the bride to the bridegroom’s house in a chariot, and then burnt the axletree before the door, signifying thereby that she was to remain in her new home. (Montfaucon, Eng. ed., iii, 137.)
- ↑ Perhaps to avoid touching the threshold, the seat of the Penates. A Roman bride was lifted over the threshold for the same reason (Montfaucon, iii, 140); but treading on the threshold was also tabooed by the Tatars.
- ↑ In Russia, with barley and down. (Ralston, p. 280.)
