Page:The Autobiography of an Indian Princess.djvu/50

36 must also be lucky, for does she not walk gently and speak gently? And is not her forehead of the right shape? Certainly she has not the prominent forehead that brings bad luck.

When the bride arrives at her future home, her husband's sisters throw water and money under the palki, and the jewel-covered little girl is lifted out by her mother-in-law and placed upon a large plate filled with milk and alta (a sort of rose-coloured confection), upon which she stands until the marriage ceremony is over. Then the newly-married couple sit upon a new cloth and receive presents and blessings from the bridegroom's friends and relations.

"May you speak like honey," whispers a maiden as she touches the pretty lips of the bride with honey. " May you hear sweetness like honey," she continues, as she drops honey into the small ears. Then the bridegroom's mother comes forward, gives the bride a pair of bangles and lifts the head-dress which hides her face. As she does this the guests have an opportunity of seeing the blushing little face, and begin to praise her looks, the mother-in-law meanwhile saying, "This is my Lakshmi" (goddess of luck).

On the third day gifts arrive from the bride's father: gifts of jewels, dresses, sweets, scents, soaps sometimes to the number of five hundred or a thousand. Porters bring them in and the bride and bridegroom change into the new robes. This ceremony is called the Feast of Merriment, for every-