MARRIAGES.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12648, 20 September 1909, Page 1

MARRIAGES.

I From time immemorial thero have ! been all sorts of superstitions about If every, woman on her wedding day tried to coniform to all tlie , "doV' aud "don'ts" enjoyed by old I rhymes and sayings, she would find lit a vory difficult task. Most of us iare -raffluM- inclined to look upon the I bridesmaid as a person of very sec-'onda-ry importance, and the only > supenstitdon concerning her with '■ which we ane familiar is the one which foretells spiaisterhood if she undertakes tho duties of a bridesmaid threo times. , j In a curious old book styled "The Fifteen Comforts of Marriage", tve read tliat "in Scotland the bndes- ! maid is popularly known as the 'best maid,' and in past years one of her principal duties was to carry the bride's presents on the wedding day to her future home. The first article gcni-ally taken into the house was a vessel of salt, a portion of which wa6 ■sprinkled over the floor as a protect tion against the malignant influence of the 'evil eye.'" In Susses, when a bride returns from the churoh, she is often lobbed of all tlie pins from about her dress by her unmarried friends, who, by their possesion, are supposed to ensure maidiagc for themselves within a veair. I In. Germany thero -js a superstition : that if the bride's shoe be thrown ■ among the guests whoever secures it I will very soon be married ; and _in Ithe same country the bridesmaids often carry the myrtle wreath— wliich they have subscribed together to purchase on the nuptial eve— to the house of tho bride, aud remove it from her head at tho close of the wedding day. After this has been done the bndo is blindfolded and the myrtlo -wreath having been put into her hand, she tries to place it upon the head of one of her bridesmaids as tliey dance round her ; for, in accordance with an old belief, whoever sho crowns is sure to be married withou a year from that date. ' , In Germany, too, it is the usual practice for the mother of the bride to strew salt and dill in hor shoes prior to her going to tlio church, repeating at the samo time this charm : "Dill cease not from Will. Salt relax not." It is also customary for both bride and bridegroom to strew dill and salt in their shoe 6as a oharm against oveiy kind of malignant influence. Iv the Northern Counties a bride is expnesscly warned : "Be suro when you get married that you don't go in at one door and out at another, or you will always bo unlucky."