MARRIAGE IN PERSIA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10035, 23 December 1910, Page 3

MARRIAGE IN PERSIA.

~*- The following extract from " Persia and its People," by Ella C. Sykes, shows how marriages are conducted in tho Shah's realms;— Of course tho great interest m the life of a Persian girl is her marriage; but sho has practically no choice in the matter, ho'r parents arranging the whole affair. There is a well-known saying: "To do things quickly is of Satin because God works slowly. Haste is only permissible in three matters, which are as follow: —To get a husband for your daughter, to bury your dead, and to set food before a guest.' In earlier times girls were married when eleven or twelve years old; but now a later age is fortunately considered more suitable.

Money enters largely into tho question, the parents of a daughter having to give two or three hundred tomans to every hundred possessed by the man; they do not appear to take tho personal likes and dislikes of the future couplo much into consideration, daughters frequently being handed over to men old enough to be their fathers or even grandfathers. If a girl is wedded to a cousin, which is frequently done to keep the property of a family together, she will never bave exchanged a word with him since childhood, except in the family circle, and if a marriage .-■ is on the tapis it is considered unseemly for the young lady to visit at the house of the aspirant to her hand. In. fact, the oouplo are not supposed to see one anotlier at all until the formal betrothal before a mulla takes place, and on this occasion the fiancee's face is so thickly covered with rouge and powder and her eyes so painted u]> that it is difficult to get any idea of ner natural charms; moreover, she goes through the ceremony in total silence. A really smart wedding may last for five days and nights, or even for a whole week, tho ladies arrayed in beautifully embroidered clothes and wearing all their jewellery. They will sip slierborts, drink syrupy tea, smoke kalians, and gossip incessantly; but the brideelect is hardly noticed on these sions. and sits apart in silence with bent'head and her " chadar " drawn over her face. The guests will present hor with jewels, sugar-loaves ornamented with gold-leaf, or big bowls made of sugar-candy with candy stalactites standing upright in them; and she herself will have her eyebrows widened with indigo, over which is a lino of gold-leaf, "while tiny flowers will be painted witli indigo on her cheek-tones, chin and throat. In the midst of the dancing and playing by hired musicians the cry will be raised, " Behold' the bridegroom comes!" and a great helterskelter takes place, every one present hurrying pell-mell into an inner room, screened off by curtains, from behind which they peep at the bridegroom and his particular friends, who come to eat sweetmeats in the " anderoon." The bridegroom sits in jtftte on a chair, while slaves bring him presents from the bride, servo hiir. and his company with refreshments and water-pipes, and amuse them by dancing. This visit of ceremony lasts about half an hour, after which the men retire, and tho women rush hack in a body into the room, which they have been obliged to vacate. Tho English lady to whom 1 am indebted for this account said that on one occasion tho little girl-bride, who had not been allowed to peer between the curtains, asked her eagerly whether her future husband looked good-tem-pered, as sbo had not as yet seen his face! On the last day of the wedding the bride, who has taken practically no share in all the merry-making, is carried off by her nearest relatives to a private bath, where her face and eyebrows are freshly rouged ar.d painted, md on her return to the guest-room all the women rise, and a copy of the Koran is held over her head for luck and also a mirror to double the length of her life. Then her "jahaz," or dowry, which has been hid on large wooden trays

for all to see, and which, consists of many clothes, cooking utensils, lamps, third-rate European oleographs and vases, is carried off to her new homo by porters, and tho bride is ready to follow thom.

She kisses the heartlistone of her old home, and carries bread, salt and a piece of gold with her for luck, and then, closely veiled, is lifted on to a largo donkey gaily adorned with manycoloured woollen tassels and cowrie shells. A couple of slaves, who form part of her dowry, accompany her on small donkeys, and a great crowd of friends go with her to the house where her husband awaits her.