Page:Ossendowski - The Fire of Desert Folk.djvu/63

Rh "It is a Hadar wedding."

Evidently the procession was approaching, as the noise was momentarily growing more terrible. In addition to the regular din small bombs were set off and Bengal fires lighted as the procession came into view. Ten big men, beating upon the drums, headed the line, followed close by ten others shaking tambourines above their heads, all of them advancing with slow, measured steps and with the gravest expressions on their faces. Then came the other musicians, playing reed instruments and banging cymbals, while all were flanked by a group of bombers and fire-lighters. Between the music and the principal actors in the procession came the singers, so-called, who were also hired participants in the feast and who shrieked out at the top of their voices praises of the bridegroom's nobility, courage and liberality and of the bride's beauty and virtue. From time to time the motif of the Garnata defined itself, only to be immediately drowned in the general din.

The next section of the cortege was made up of a group of the bridegroom's friends, whom he would feast for several days with mutton, tea and coffee. Immediately after these came a select number of his most intimate and trustworthy companions, whose duty it was to ascertain from the bridegroom on the day following the wedding whether he had been cheated or pleased, in taking unto himself a wife whom he had never seen and who had been so completely swathed in her white, thick raiment that he could not even see before the ceremony the character of her eyes.

What a terrible risk and real lottery are these Moslem