Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 5 1887.djvu/242

234 tsz) signify the desire that she may (fài) quickly (tsz) a son produce. The dragon's eyes (ün ngàn) that he may become a (pong ngàn) second on the list of Hanlin doctors, if he do not attain to the rank of the first (chong ün). The mirror is employed as being extremely obnoxious to evil spirits, who cannot endure the sight of their own faces.

In the bride's room is a table on which are two lighted candles, and in the middle a pair of men's and a pair of women's shoes, with a pig's head. An old woman takes the rice and scatters it on all sides to expel demons. The bridegroom is then lifted up by two men by the side of the bed, while the bride stands on the bed facing him at a lower elevation. In her hand she holds a red sash with a round steel mirror on it. A knot having been tied in this one end is pulled by the bride and the other by the bridegroom, who then puts it in his sleeve.

The anxiously-awaited moment now arrives when the bridegroom, raising the veil, first looks on his bride's face, but, whether the results prove satisfactory or the reverse, whether she be beautiful as a fairy or hideous as a gnome, there is now no escape for him, and though a bridegroom has been known on inspection of his bride flatly to refuse to have anything to do with her, yet she would be held by all to hold the position of his wife, and, as such, to be entitled to all a wife's privileges.

The bridegroom then taps the bride three times on the head with a fan, indicating his authority over her. This is called "the junction of relationship," the couple now becoming man and wife for ever. The two women who accompanied the bride then take off their red robes, wash their faces, and go back, the bridegroom presenting them with a sum sufficient for a feast.

At night the bridegroom's friends and relatives assemble for a feast. If numerous, the relatives feast on the first and the friends the second day. The newly-married couple first worship heaven and earth, and afterwards the bridegroom's ancestors, and they then salute his parents, relatives and friends. The offerings consist of a pig's head, fish, fowl, and a pair of male and of female shoes. The clothes on this occasion are white. A general feast then ensues.