Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/103

Rh it. At length the pariskámenos and the women officials of the bridegroom's party (i.e. his sister, his mother, and his godmother) effected an entrance after whispering something through the keyhole. All the men and ourselves remained in the yard, while the girl friends of the bride mourned over her inside the house. After about half an hour, the mother, sister-in-law (herself a newly-wed bride), and sister of the bride came out, the first two carrying metal dishes of wine in which coins had been placed, and the third a bunch of basil. They walked out to the gate and kissed the bridegroom and the sýnteknos (Plate IV).

After a further delay, the bride, surrounded by her women, was led out by the godmother of the bridegroom. She was dressed in so many clothes that she could hardly walk, and must have been nearly suffocated with the heat. Over her clothes she had a red robe of thick material, and over her head was a long yellow cloth, above which she wore a metal cap with a long tassel and a fringe of coins; over that again was the thick red veil. After seeing her led out, calling out on her mother and expressing loudly her grief and reluctance to leave her home, we were hurried on to a post of vantage. I was told afterwards that when the bride passes out of the outer gate of her home she kisses the door.

The procession made its way to the church. In front ran a posse of little boys indulging their natural aptitude for raising a din, and then a crowd of men led by the tambourine player in front drumming away and shrieking songs like one possessed, while the man with the spoon castanets danced. Next came the priest carrying his book under his arm, and his stick in his hand, puffing away at a cigarette. Behind him walked the main part of the procession, the bridegroom and sýnteknos side by side with candles in their hands, and on the right of the groom the bride; behind them again was the crowd of women (Plate III).

The service was of course in the language of the Greek Church, with the exception of the exhortation, which was read in Turkish, in order that it might be 'understanded of the people.' The first part took place just inside the church door, and was invisible from our position opposite the lectern in the middle of the aisle. To this the pair now advanced. The book from which one of the two officiating priests read the service was placed upon their