SIBERIAN CUSTOMS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 96, 27 April 1929, Page 18

SIBERIAN CUSTOMS

A HIDE AND SEEK WEDDING

Most wedding feasts are distinguished by dancing and singing, by eating'and drinking, but to a Siberian tribe these things are . secondary details (writes G. M. Almedergen). The great glory of , a wedding is the time-hallowed game of hide and. seek. Should the young man fail to catch his chosen one, the marriage may be postponed—sometimes . ' for a year, sometimes . indefinitely. This, iiow-ovei-j happens very rarely./ In most cases, the bride tries to play into lior groom's hands, though he is surround-, ed by obstacles.

The ceremony takes place in the tent of the bride's people. The tent,is huge, with a wide central room and Viountloss little compartments giving out of it. Sometimes there are as many as. thirty little cubicles, all separated by loosely hung reindeer skins. At the appointed time the guests arrive and womenfolk are given willow rods for a definite purpose. When the bride and groom come in—to the accompaniment of loud drums —women guests quickly hide themselves behind the reindeer curtains .and a. signal is given to start the game. Then the fun begins in real earnest. Tho "bride vanishes into the first cubicle and the young man flies after her. Ho may run quickly enough, but his trouble is that women guests lie iv waiting for him in the darkened cubicles; they pounce on him and belabour his shoulders with their willow rodsj while no one hinders the bride in—her flight from one compartment to another. Sometimes reindeer skins are flung under the man's, feet; he stumbles,'falls, picks himself up and,runs on. The game goes ahead —accompanied by drums and deafening shouts —till at last the youug man catches his bride before she has had time to run back to the living-room. Together they come out, and tho company expects them to quaff glass after glass .of steaming hot tea—not quite an appropriate beverage after a spell of such breathless running! .