A CHINESE GIRL'S WEDDING.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3149, 1 August 1881, Page 4

A CHINESE GIRL'S WEDDING.

(By A. H. Wall, in the Girls' Own Paper.) A Chinese girl who has poor parents leads the degraded life of a slave j no outdoor labor is too long or too hard for her, no treatment too bad, no punishment too severe. If her parents are lowly but not so poor, she is regarded as the household drudge, whom no kind of work can injure or degrade. In either case she stagnates in ignorance, unable either to read or write ; but, strange to say, she does not grow either dull, brutal, or apathetic. A kind word moves her to tears, and to win her heartfelt gratitude is a very easy task. The daughter of wealth fares a little better. She is not so active, and, therefore, not so happy, but her domestic work is light, and she can read and write a little, and she has amusements. She is taught music and singing, and even what the poor crippled creature calls dancing. She goes to the theatre, receives occasional visitors, and now and then is taken to the temple in a sedan chair, or a kind of wheelbarrow with curtains. But she keeps to her own chamber, has her meals apart from her father and brother, devotes considerable time to her toilet and the growth and preservation of her long claw-like nails, and, yawning and sighing over her almost purposeless, indolent life, is frequently glad to stupefy herself with the opium pipe. At length there comes a time when the girl may be married, a time for which she has been longing witli all her heart. Among those whom tho law of China compel to marry, and with one of their own rank, her charms are duly but indirectly magnified, and they all know that she will be the bride of the highest bidder. Her nose is boautif ully short, her lips delightfully thick, no lashes disfigure her charming black eyes. The length of her finger nails is surprising! If these fail to attract and no bidder appears, the disconsolate fathor says she was a mistake, regret 3 that she was not drowned directly after her birth, as thousands of other female infants are every year, and mournfully contemplates the cost of her living. If a good offer comes, and no more bidders are likely to appear, immediate preparations are made for the wedding. AL last the girl will be somebody ; she is delighted to find herself for once an object of general interest; it is a grand discovery when she finds that even a girl can make all the people about hor glad and merry! Her spirits rise, life assumes a brighter aspect, -he dreams day-dreams, sees herself honored and respected as a house mother, her dignity asserted even by tho law, which has hitherto recognised her rather as an object for punishment than protection. She will soon no longer be a mere useless piece of furniture or a drudge ; or, as a Chinese author says, she should be ' a shadow and an echo in the house.' She knows well enough that for a time she will but live her old live over again ; that marriage will not givo her a right to call anything her own ; that she will stand in silence to serve at table and feed on the leavings of tho men ; and that outside her own inner room or rooms no living soul|will acknowledge her authority. But she knows also that she will be the proud mother of boys, that she will have children to love her and to be cared for.

On the day of her -wedding tho house is early astir. There is the greatest zeal displayed for hor adornment; her looks are arixionsly watched, and the nerfection of her toilet is an object of overwhelming importance. Her splendid silken robes flash, gleam, and glitter with jewels and gold ; her long plaits of raven hair are adorned, with

flowers "artel precious stones. She tottera on her poor cribblcd feet into a kind of cage, a brilliant palanquin, whore site tits in statelike a queen on her throne, and is carefuLy inspected. Mo-?t carefully, for only consider what a dreadful thins; it will be if when the bridegroom first sees her he should express disappointment, say that I hose who described her deceived him, and wind up by declaring that rather than have her he will .sacrifice all the dowry money lie has paid, submit to the usual fine in a like amount. 'When the procession is ready to escort her, the lattice work of her cape is closed and locked, and the beavers raise and carry her in triumph to the home of hor purchaser. Musicians playing fifes, drums, and hautboys, precede her ; torch-bearers and flambeau bearers surround ncr ; her family march in solemn state behind ; and everything comprising her portion, clothes, furniture &c, follows, each article displayed by one person, male or female. Shut up alone she hears the music and the joyous shouts and the trampling feet; sees the red light of the torches and flambeaux, falling flickeringly upon her gold and jewellery ; thinks of her new home amongst strangers whom she has never seen ; dreads fcho little sound to come, that of tho unknown bridegroom's key in the lock of her gilded cage ; wonders what he will be like, in what words he will first address her; trembles with intense anxiety. Meanwhile the bridegroom, in another fever of anxiety, stands in holiday attire within his outer door. The feast is spread, the guests have arrived, he only waits his bride. What will she be like ? How will he be pleased ? Will the blind bargain really prove a good one ? At last he hears fche approaching music- and shouting ; afc last the procession halts before his house ; her gay and glided bridal cage—the palanquin—is before him. The trusty domestic who bears its key gives ifc to him with a lowly obeisance, and then admidsfc sudden and profound silence, he turns ifc in the lock. The gilded lattice work swings open ;he looks for a moment upon the girl he has purchased —docs not suddenly shut the door and turn away, as she trembling fears he may, but gravely assists her to alight, while fche merry music burst forth afresh, and the shouting is louder than ever. Entering the house, fche ceremony which unites them as firmly as the most ceremonious one can, is thus performed. Eor the first time she sits down to eat and drink with a strange man—perhaps she does not even know bis name—and having previously prostrated themselves before their parents, and saluted the Tiers, or idol, in the hall four times, they feed together, drink each from the others cup, and they aro then man and wife, united as completely as Chinese law can unite fchem.

The bride is then given into the hands of her new female relatives, who entertain her and her family for the rest of the day at a feast in their own section of the dwelling, while the bridegroom and his friends make merry in another.

One month after there is another ceremonious meeting of the two families, when the bride's family come to sco her for the first time, and this is followed by a third, when the bride revisits her old home.