Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/493

Rh from inside request certain pieces of music to be played. When these are finished, the doors are opened at the request of the bridegroom’s friends, and the cust, called “the heavens full of stars”, is thrown into the house as an omen of wealth and prosperity. The bridegroom’s representatives then enter the house, as does also the chair. Mutual congratulations follow over a cup of tea. While the female relations are making arrangements for the bride to leave her home, the male friends depart, and are soon followed by the bridegroom’s mother or aunt, who, after she has placed an embroidered piece of silk over the bride’s head, which covers her face, bids farewell to her. The chair is now “disinfected” by the bride’s brothers with incense, to drive away evil spirits, and inside the chair a calendar is placed, as it contains a number of names of idols who can control evil spirits. The bride is then carried or assisted into the bridal sedan by her elder brother or maternal uncle. She is dressed in red, and weeps loudly. The sedan-carriers are next “tipped”, and directed to carry their burden with great care, after which the sedan departs for the bridegroom’s house. The younger brother, or nephew, of the bride runs by its side holding on to the shaft. Two men run in front of it, each of them holding a red cloth, which they hold up when the sedan passes a temple or well, in order to ward off evil influences. The mother follows in an ordinary sedan, and the other relations in carts. When the sedan arrives at the bridegroom’s house, the door is shut, and crackers are fired to drive away evil spirits. After this the mother and bride’s relations are requested to enter the house, and the sedan is carried inside, but has to pass over a charcoal pan, as a sign that the happy pair will be as brilliant as fire. The sedan is placed inside the door. Before the bride’s mother opens the blind and assists the bride out, the bridegroom fires three arrows at the blinds. The bride, on coming out, has to step over a miniature saddle, as a sign that she will never marry a second husband, in accordance with the saying: