Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/489

Rh consult with her good-man, and report the result of their deliberations in a day or two. The middle-man then returns in hot haste to the bridegroom’s family, and offers his congratulations, declaring that the matter has been arranged satisfactorily, though such is far from the truth, and having obtained his fee, he departs, promising to return in two days to arrange as to the interchange of visits between the two families, for the purpose of viewing the bride and bridegroom.

If the parents of the bride consent, the middle-man on revisiting them is presented with a fee, and asked to arrange a date for viewing the bride and bridegroom. Should they refuse, the middle-man dares not show his face at the bridegroom’s house. Before visiting each other, both families institute private inquiries as to the history and standing of each other.

Inspecting the Bridegroom and Bride.—After both parties have consented to the match, and are well acquainted with each other, a lucky date is chosen for the inspection of the bridegroom and his family by the bride’s mother, and of the bride and her family by the bridegroom’s mother. The bride’s mother, on arrival at the bridegroom’s family, first observes if the bridegroom is well grown and a fit match for her daughter, and then asks him a few questions to see that he is not dumb, afterwards turning her attention to his parents, and finally to the house and its furniture.

The bridegroom’s mother then pays her visit to the bride’s home, examining the bride’s appearance, speaking a few words to her, and asking her to show her round the house, in order to satisfy herself that the bride is not lame, the latter being, of course, quite ignorant of her intention.

The inspection of the bride and bridegroom does not take place sometimes—as, for example, when the distance between the two families is great. In such cases a relative or friend must secure that both parties are suitable, and he is held responsible if they are found not to be so.