Page:Folklore1919.djvu/288

276 mother-in-law. There are, however, private apartments for her husband and herself. At meal times she has to be present at the family table. She becomes one of the family. An extra degree of bashfulness is considered a great quality among young maidens and more especially newly-married women, and this quality is sometimes a drawback to them, for they cannot sit with others at the meals.

Messengers run from one house to another, from the bride to her mother, and from her to her daughter in turn, at all hours of the day and night. Some inquire about the family, others fetch a forgotten workbox, a third runs for fresh vegetables from the girl's own little garden, and so on.

Tasty dishes and newly baked bread are sent on to the homesick bride. The husband goes out after breakfast if he is well-to-do and has an hour or two in his karaiz (field), or shoulders his gun and goes to the woods to shoot. He comes home at lunch-time laden with all kinds of game. The wife is engaged putting her house in order till āgha (the master or husband) returns.

Two or three months go past, but the bride during this time is not allowed to visit her mother; her mother, however, can call and see her. In time a Function is held, and after it the young lady has permission to visit her parents in the house of her birth. This is termed pā wāzī (Persian—pā, feet; wāzī, a corruption of aivdzi, meaning to open, to free), "Freedom of the feet."

A few friends and relations are invited to breakfast by the bride's mother. They afterwards visit the bride-groom's house, and reading the Koran and showering flowers and sweets bring the young wife to her mother's house. There a feast is held and all remain till maghrib, or evening prayer, when the same body of people escort the young wife back to her husband. After this pā wāzī, she can visit her mother as often as she pleases, but on all occasions she has to receive the permission of her husband and mother-in-law, and they never refuse her.