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A Marriage Market

EVERY year fn remote villages on the edge of the Carpathian Mountains in Rumania there is still held a Maiden's Fair, to which come young men and girls who wish to be married.

Tho girl 3 show off their jewels, clothes, and dowries, and young men inspect them and choose their, wives. By sunrise, peasant families for miles round liavo gathered on the mountain side. Hero the priests celebrate Mass before the crowd climbs to ground higher up the mountain. The girls look picturesque in tight velvet boleros and clean white blouses and stockings. Their trousseaux, unloaded from donkeys, are spread round them. Their larger possessions—farms,' cattle, furniture—are represented by models carved in wood.

The men, gay in national dress ivith tight waistcoats and voluminouslysleeved sliirta, look round the market, and when they have picked out the girl of their choice they ask her to dance. The dance goes on for hours. Priests marry the couples on the mountain.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19390204.2.156.60

Bibliographic details

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 29, 4 February 1939, Page 12 (Supplement)

Word Count
162

A Marriage Market Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 29, 4 February 1939, Page 12 (Supplement)

A Marriage Market Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 29, 4 February 1939, Page 12 (Supplement)