BRIDE AND BRIDEGROOM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19199, 16 June 1924, Page 10

BRIDE AND BRIDEGROOM.

CURIOUS MARRIAGE CUSTOMS In many parts of India, particularly Bengal (says a writer in a London paper), after the wedding ceremony the bride and bridegroom are tied together by the corners of their garments and made to parade the full length of the village to signify to all that they are united for life. At a Cingalese wedding the men and women are tied together by their thumbs, and in parts of Northern India the custom is to tie, a piece of string or thread round the bride’s wrist. Another very ancient custom that is still observed in many marriages is that of placing the yoke of a bullock on the head < f too bride for a moment in order to impress upon her the duty of complete submission to her husband. Among the Kurds, the bridegroom —no doubt thinking of the possibility of divorc.-, which is easily obtained —stands on a stream ot running water while pronouncing his marriage vows. This signifies that ho washes away the binding nature of the pron i-e. and tr.eroloro the breach of it is iess sinful! The marriage ceremony in Afghanistan is simple if nothing else. All the man has to do is to cut off a lock of the girl’s hair or throw a sheet over her and proclaim her his bride ! In Persia marriages frequently take place between boys and girls. One of the boys employed by the British army in Kermanshah in 1919 was 14 years old and had been married twice ! When a Persian takes his bride homo sheep are usually killed as she steps over the threshold. A similar custom is prevalent among the Arabs, and when the bri le reaches the threshold of her new home a sheep is killed and she has to step over a stream of its flowing blood. In Turkey, when the bridegroom unveils his bride to have bis first view of her after the marriage ceremony, they both look into a mirror and knock their heads together so that the images may appear united. In certain parts of China the bride is carried on a servant’s hack over a slow charcoal fire, on each side of which are arranged a pair of the bridegroom’s shoos. Another custom is that of lifting the bride over the threshold of her new home. The men of Abyssinia usually carry their brides from their old homes to their new ones, no doubt imitating the ancient custom of taking wives by force. In Somaliland iney have a queer custom of shutting up the bride and bridegroom for seven days after the wedding. After an Algerian wedding the bridegroom'’enters his home backwards holding a dagger in his hand, and his bride follows him, touching the point of the blade with the tip of her finger. In the Gilbert Islands a man car. demand his wife s sisters in marriage, and he is also expected to take his brother’s widow.