Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/429

Rh the articles to be “put on the table”, such as the bride’s presents, the quantity of spirits, pure, and provisions required for the carouse. The day of the wedding carouse (proksimme) is also fixed. When everything is agreed to the girl is summoned, and she is asked if she wishes to be married. Silence is taken to give consent.

§ 2a. Melnikoff, writing of the Moksha of Simbirsk in the year 1851, mentions a curious custom of wooing. The young man’s parents first make offerings at home to Yurt azyr ava and Kud azyr ava. These gifts consist of dough figures of domestic animals, which are placed under the threshold of the house and of the outside gate, while prayer is made to the goddesses and to deceased ancestors. The father then cuts off the corner of a loaf placed on the table, and at the time of the offerings scoops out the inside and fills it with honey. At midnight he drives in profound secrecy to the house of the bride-elect, places the honeyed bread on the gate-post, strikes the window with his whip, and shouts: “Seta! I, Veshnak Mazakoff, make a match between thy daughter Kodai and my son Uru. Take the honeyed bread from thy gate-post and pray. After this speech Veshnak gallops home as hard as he can, while Seta dresses in haste and sallies forth in pursuit with his children and relations. Should the former be overtaken he is flogged within an inch of his life; if he escapes, the pursuers drive on to his house and demand if he is at home. He is now bound to show himself at the window in proof that he has not hidden somewhere on the road. Seta cannot now oppose the match or refuse his daughter, so he returns home, prays to Yurt azyr ava, Kud azyr ava, and to his ancestors, and offers up the “god’s portion”.

§ 2b. A very similar custom was formerly in vogue in the Moksha village of Napolni (Simbirsk). The young man’s father, taking a staff and half a round loaf,