Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/109

Rh It is the custom for the bridegroom to give the bride a purse containing gold, silver, and copper, for immediate necessaries, and this is presented to the bride by the priest immediately after the ceremony.

The newly-married couple are then mounted on a car side by side; next follows what is called the "dragging home." The bride and bridegroom start away first, preceded by the mounted guests and followed by the cars of the other guests, whose object is to outrace each other. The pace is terrific, and collisions are obviously numerous, and the horse that distinguishes itself that day goes up in value.

The horsemen who have raced ahead to the bridegroom's house compete for a bottle of whisky as the prize.

As the wedding party passes through any village on the route there rises a blaze of lighted sheaves of straw, each householder holding up such a torch in honour of the newly married pair.

All this time, however, the mother of the bridegroom has remained at home in order to bake the oaten cake, which she breaks finally on the head of the bride as the young woman passes the doorway of her future home. She pours also a bottle of holy water over her.

We may note here that it is not the custom of the mother of the bride to attend at the church or at the bridegroom's house.

At this first home-coming the entrance is always by the back door of the cabin, it being deemed unlucky to go in at the front, through which the dead are always carried out.

Irish celebrations are never lacking in some startling and humorous incident; indeed, something of a shindy is necessary to complete any good business, so that a certain amount of healthy row is inevitable. Once, it is said, a guest who arrived at the last minute at the wedding feast asked "Who is that fellow over there?" On being told that he was the best man he rushed up to the person indicated and struck him between the eyes, simultaneously remarking: "You're a liar; you're not the best man!"

The wedding evening is spent in dancing and singing those ancient songs which nowadays learned collectors are so anxious