Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/141

 then becomes an article of traffic in the hands of the professional match-maker, who is usually an old woman of low social grade, but remarkable for her tactful and deceptive aptitudes. By her arts a suitable family alliance is arranged, but unless by a subterfuge, the proposed husband is not permitted to behold his future wife.

Once a marriage has been decided on, it is considered fitting that all the innocence of the ingenuous damsel should be put to flight on the threshold of the wedded state. In the dusk of the evening the bride is fetched from her home by a torchlight procession to the sound of pipes and flutes and orgiastic songs. Although women are not allowed to attend the theatre, on this occasion the theatre is brought to the houses of the contracting parties; and the installation of a wife takes place amid a scene of riot and debauchery, of lewdness and obscenity, which tears the veil from all the secrets of sexual co-habitation. ]*