Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/150

126 bridegroom wear white; after the ceremonial anointing they put on coloured clothes. Our brides, as we all know, wear white, and the veil is a very important part of the costume. In old times the Yorkshire bride used to wear large true-blue bows across her breast, lessening in number and size till they reached her waist. White, red, and every other colour were conspicuous about her gown and hat, except green, which none of the party were allowed to wear. The robes of the Jewish bride were white, sometimes embroidered with gold thread and covered with perfumes. The displaying of the bride to the bridegroom in different dresses to the number of seven is an important part of the Musalmân ritual. The Negro girl in West Africa announces that she is marriageable by parading in the finest clothes she possesses or can borrow. It would not be difficult to add largely to these instances; in fact, the use of some kind of distinctive marriage dress seems to extend all over the world.

As for Greek brides, we have the Homeric case of Nausikaa, who is busied about garments for her wedding: "Thy marriage day is near at hand when thou thyself must needs go beautifully clad, and have garments to give to them who shall lead thee to the house of the bridegroom." We have the fatal robe which Medea in her jealousy sent when Jason was about to wed Glauce. The literary evidence