Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/441

Rh When this ceremony is concluded, the girls sit on benches and set to work, or, in default of work, they sing and converse.

§ 6. The preceding section narrates what takes place at the house of the bride on the day before the solemnisation of the wedding. Now we must turn to the house of the bridegroom, to see what happens contemporaneously there. In the morning a number of girls, who have been invited, come trooping into the room carrying sticks, the heads of which are covered with women’s caps, and adorned with ribbons. Placing themselves in a row before the oldest members of the family, they sing:

The old man settles what relations must be asked to the feast, and blesses them, with the words: “Go, and may the Lord preserve you.” The girls take their departure, and every one whom they invite must give them a present. On their return, they sing:

After taking some refreshment, they go to heat the bath-house for the bridegroom, but, before doing so, ask a blessing: “Give a blessing, grey-haired old man, that a thoroughly good bath may be heated auspiciously.”

He replies: “Depart, and may the Lord be with you.”