Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/497

Rh being expected to remain true to each other, even after the death of one of them.

An important marriage ceremony, not mentioned, if I remember right, in the paper, reminds us also of the fable of “The Old Man under the Moon”. Before the consummation of marriage, whilst the new married couple are sitting together on the “k’ang”, they drink wine alternately from two cups, which are tied together by a red string. The bridegroom, after having sipped from his cup, hands it over to the bride, and the bride hands hers over to her husband, and so repeatedly. This ceremony is called h’o chi’n³, or h’o-kin, “to unite the cups.”

The Manchu bride sits in a red chair, the Chinese bride in a Mant’ien-hsing—a chair covered all over with glass ornaments, and, therefore, bearing this name, which means, “the sky covered all over with stars.”

I did not know the explanation given in the paper of the saddle on the threshold, over which the bride has to step, but it is decidedly the origin of this custom. At present, besides the saddle, they put frequently also an apple on the threshold. The Chinese name of this latter fruit is p’ing–kuo, or, abridged, p’ing, which means also “peace”, whilst the saddle is called an in Chinese. An means also “tranquillity”. Therefore this custom expresses a wish that peace (p’ing, represented by the apple) and tranquillity (an, represented by the saddle) may reign in the house of the newly married couple. The whole custom is probably derived from that of the saddle alone, as explained in the paper.

The bride must sit three whole days and nights on the k’ang. This is, I believe, mentioned, but perhaps not quite clearly stated in the paper.

It is not a very rare thing that the bride’s family make it a condition that the couple, after marriage, should come and live in the house of the parents of the bride. This is called ju-chui. A pleasant drama in two parts, the Tê-i-yüan, is based on such a marriage. There, the additional