Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/174

150 bard well, for in proportion as he is paid will he compose verses in praise of the bride and her parents; and this is well understood by all the community. The "Dhurzee," or tailor, and the "Mochee," or shoemaker, then come in for their customary fees.

It is now getting to be about time when the ceremonies at the bride's house are drawing near to an end; so the bride retires, and adorns herself with one of the best of her bridal dresses and a pair of shoes worked in silver and gold. The bridegroom also changes his suit and puts on embroidered shoes, and they are now prepared for a start to their new home. It is customary sometimes for the ceremonies to be carried on for two or three days; but this entails a great deal of expense, and as a rule they are completed in one day.

The news is very quickly conveyed to those outside the house that the bride and bridegroom are about to appear, and the procession begins to be formed in its due order. The bridegroom takes his leave of the bride's parents, relatives, and friends; and his father does so also, asking at the same time if there are any village-dues that he ought to pay. He is told that the "Alusjid," or mosque, has to be remembered, the water-carriers, and others; and he leaves as much as he can well afford to one and all. During this interval the "Doolee," or sedan chair, which is to convey the bride to her new home, is taken into her apartment by her near relatives; and she is duly placed in it, and the framework of which it is composed is covered over with a red curtain, worked neatly in silk. She is now "Goshah," or hidden from view—literally, veiled.

As soon as the "Doolee" with the bride is carried out, there is great crying and lamentation amongst the women of the household, which does not cease until the "Dolee" takes its place in the train, borne on the shoulders of four men of the "Machee" caste. The procession is not materially different in its arrangement of musicians and followers from that which escorted the bridegroom from his home in