Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/236

 2 1 4 Collecta7iea.

one of coffee colour, and for the last three a green one. P'or an aunt or cousin mourning lasts from three to six months.

At Balme, on the evening of a death, the peasants will say prayers and the rosary in the stable. It used to be the custom to repeat the rosary three times, with rests in between, but now it is only done once. As the mourners leave the stable, copper coins are given to them. Formerly, in place of money, children present used to be gwtnfette (slices of bread).

Many old customs at death have now died out. At Caluso there was the curious custom of the Facolta w^^Yra (Physician's Order). A doctor who thought that there was no hope of a patient's recovery was bound to exhort the dying man to receive the last rite of the Catholic faith, and to warn hiiji that, if this were neglected, medical visits would cease within three days. This custom was quite common as late as the early years of the seven- teenth century.

Marriage. — At Ponte Canale, Castel Delfino (Valle Varaita), I was told that, when Chianalesi marry, the numerous wedding party rides from the village to the register office in pairs, and principally on mules, — donkeys not being used. A single animal carries bride and bridegroom, another the bride's father and mother, another her brother and sister, and so on. It is the custom to gallop through any other villages on the way. At Castel Delfino, when the wedding day is fixed, the bridegroom presents a coudliii, — a small silk or woollen hand-woven strip, — to the bride, and she wears it attached to her lace collar {gorgiera) with its ends falling down her chest. The bride presents a^^/z/ar/^ (silk handkerchief) to the bridegroom, and he wears it as a necktie until the wedding day. On that day the bride will wear her cap so that the lace falls on her forehead ; the ordinary ironed cap is only assumed eight days after marriage, and then the lace is stiff. The bride gives 3./oj{larin or silk or wool ribbons to each of her men friends, and a wool handkerchief with a fringe to each of the women, who wear it, with ribbons and strings tied to it, when accompanying her to church. After the ceremony, friends and acquaintances kiss the bride on her doorstep, and receive from her a piece of ribbon and from the bridegroom a coudlin. These gifts are taken from a box held by the bride's mother or her representative.