Page:Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills.djvu/31

 out and put into the flowered chair at the door. The unwillingness of brides at this point has become proverbial,—na-ko hsin-jên k’ên shang chiao 那個新人肯上轎. "What bride was ever willing to enter the chair?"

She carries in the chair with her a foot-rule, scissors, a brass mirror and some five-coloured threads: these are to protect her from demons on the road. She is tied in, and often locked in, the key being carried by the middleman or by the bridegroom's relative who has come with him.

To sit in the flowery chair makes the day of a lifetime for many a bride; and if there is only a short distance to go, they will often wish to be carried round the neighbourhood in this way, with the music, flags and umbrellas, that it may not be said of them in after years that they came in a common chair.

Before this chair is sent to bring the bride the bride-groom sacrifices to it, a stick of incense is placed at each of the four chair-poles, wine is poured on the ground at each corner, while someone kneels and worships the chair lest the hsin-jên sha 親人煞 the evil influences of brides who have used the chair before should still adhere to it.

On reaching the door of her new home the bride finds a table on which is a measure of rice with candles and incense stuck in it. The master of ceremonies calls out 女家車馬請囘轉男家車馬出來迎. "Bridal chariots please return; bridegroom's chariots come forth and receive." It is supposed that the spirits of her home escort her so far, but on entering the house she comes under the guardianship of the spirits of her husband's home.

She is received by a specially appointed person, who receives the key, gets her out of the chair and leads her to the chief room in her new home. The bridegroom, escorted by his friends, soon appears and the marriage ceremony is performed. Two candles are lighted on the altar, and the pair kneel and worship Heaven and Earth and their ancestors.They then salute one another with a bow, and at this point the husband may lift the veil and look on his bride’s face for the first time.