mother with a complimentary sheet. But among the Jâts of Northern India every girl is supposed to embroider her own Châdar, the sheet or shawl which she wears. These are what are known to English ladies as Phûlkâris, or "flowered embroidery," and are used by them as curtains or hangings. It is naturally difficult to procure a genuine specimen, as few Jât women care to sell their wedding robes, and most of those sold to Europeans are made up for sale.
The regard paid to the wedding dress is in some measure due to the common savage belief in the close connection between the dress and the person who wears it. This may be illustrated by the Greek belief that sitting on a girl's clothes-box keeps match-makers away from the house.[1] In this country an old couplet directs that the bride shall wear:—
"Something old, something new,
Something borrowed, something blue."
"The something blue" takes, I am given to understand, usually the form of a garter, an article of dress which plays an important part in some wedding rites, as, for instance, in the old custom of plucking off the garter of the bride.[2] "The something old" and "something blue" are devices to baffle the Evil Eye. The usual effect on the bride of the Evil Eye is to render her barren, and this is obviated by wearing "something borrowed," which should properly be the under-garment of some woman who has been blessed with children: the clothes communicate fertility to the bride. Mr. Henderson records the fact of the bride wearing "something borrowed," but curiously enough is unable to explain the principle on which the usage is based.[3]
Much more might be said on the subject of the wedding
- ↑ Folk-Lore Journal, vol. i., p. 219.
- ↑ Brand, Observations (ed. 1877), pp. 371, 390.
- ↑ Folklore of the Northern Countries, p. 35. For some of these facts I have to thank Mrs. G. L. Gomme.
