Curious Ideas.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XIV, Issue 64, 21 October 1911, Page 1

Curious Ideas.

Wooing is a slightly more complicated matter in Sardinia than it is here. The marriage customs there are very curious, says the Gentlewoman, quoting from” The Romance of a Great Singer.” If a father has a marriageable daughter, the would-be suitor applies to him for permission to see her as she goes to church, or, in the event of her not wishing to be seen, he communicates with her by means of a species of telephone which has been in use since time immemorial. It is a long string with a wooden knob at each end. The father’s permission having been given, the lady drops one knob out of the window, and, the shutters being closed, places the other knob to her ear, while down below her would-be lover pours bis protestations into the knob she has thrown into the street. Sometimes this curious form of courtship continues for two or three years, she man never seeing the face ofhis inamorata.