Page:"Round the world." - Letters from Japan, China, India, and Egypt (IA roundworldletter00fogg 0).pdf/121

 wedding feast. Next came a gorgeous looking palanquin, decorated with paper flowers silk and satin embroideries in the highest style of the Chinese art, and carried by eight coolies, This I suppose contained the bride, but the curtains were drawn too closely for any profane eyes to penetrate, although I suspect that the “adorable creature” inside was peeping out. Then more sedan chairs, but not quite so “stunning” in appearance, containing the female relatives of the family, and another lot of friends invited to the feast, and the long procession wound up with more musicians, who seemed trying their best to outdo their rival performers who led the van. Behind all were scores of beggars and street gamins, the latter running from side to side of the narrow read, as full of excitement and delight at the show as the same class would be in following a military procession at home. Having never had the pleasure of accepting an invitation to a Chinese wedding, I can only describe the show part, which is open to the public, but I am told that they are celebrated with a great deal of formality and expense. Betrothals are contracted at a very early age, and even among intimate friends it is etiquette that all the negotiations shall be conducted by a class of women called “go-betweens,” or match-makers. The boys and girls are supposed to be entirety indifferent as to the whole matter. The idea of courtship or love letters would be quite shocking to all right minded persons. After betrothal, which is consummated by an exchange of presents, and the making over of a formal document to the parents of the groom, the engagement is considered as legal and binding as if the marriage had been performed. If the boy should die it is considered the proper and filial thing for the girl to remain a widow for life, and devote herself to the care of her deceased husband’s parentsa custom which our girls at home would consider particularly hard. Before the wedding day the bride has her eyebrows pulled out, which in China is the distinguishing mark of a married woman. On the morning of the “lucky day” chosen for the marriage, the bride is carried from her own home to that of her future husband in great state and ceremony. With her face closely veiled, she kneels with her husband before an altar, and they worship together the spirit tablets of the ancestors of the groom. The parties first see each other’s face when the bride’s veil is removed and