Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/166

156 at 10 a.m., so were hurrying; a little nephew of the bride came round to tell us to hurry at 8 a.m., or we would be late, so we rushed round expecting to find them all in holiday best, but not at all. There was great activity in the little kitchen about 14 ft. square, where they all lived (sixteen persons). Great quantities of large thin brown pancakes were being made, and awful-looking lumps of dough with sugar on them. In the middle of this the bride was gathering together her wedding garments, and several friends were standing round weeping. The bride took all her clothes to the room which they had vacated for our use as a workroom, when she dressed. She had unbleached calico garments, very thick and coarse, and five petticoats, all different bright colours, with yards and yards of material in them, then a black satin skirt, and purple silk blouse, and a pair of goloshes, several sizes too large, the gift of the bridegroom. All her girl friends then arrived to do her hair; it was combed with half a comb. They divided it in the middle, they flattened it as tight as it is possible to flatten, they licked it! and smoothed it down until not one hair was out of place. Then they placed a large silk handkerchief over her head, covering her face. (The bridal dress is never used again until she is buried in it.)

The father and mother still dressed in rags came in with an eikon; a dirty old coat was thrown on the floor. The girl then prostrated herself first to the eikon, held by the father, then to the mother, chanting and weeping all the time. Then the oldest sister-in-law held the eikon, and the same thing was gone through. This latter was also the official weeper. The mother, who is a charming old lady and who considered us her private property, and without whom the workroom would be a poor place indeed, had deputed the weeping to the daughter-in-law, as she said the medicine she had got from the aptek had done her cold no good, so she could not weep. They all chanted and howled at the top of their voices, the tears streaming down their faces. In the middle the mother turned to me, and in cheerful tones said, "Is it so with you?"

The bridegroom was then seen coming up with his father, etc. The bride in a state of collapse, still covered up, was set at a