BARBADOES NEGRO WEDDING

Western Star, Issue 944, 2 May 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

BARBADOES NEGRO WEDDING

It iei said that on four things only will a negro spend money—a wedding, a funeral, a lawsuit, and dress. The marriage ceremony is generally the last attribute of matrimony with which he concerns himself, but after some years' anticipation of the honeymoon he will, perhaps, have scraped together sufficient for a great wedding, with four or five carriages. A funeral, also, they delight in, and their love of litigation has already been noticed. The love of finery may be noticed on any Sunday or high-day; yellow, blue, and green are favourite colours with the females, while the males prefer a frock coat with a velvet collar, white waistcoat, drab trousers, silk hat, and boots. In fact it is extraordinary to see the gorgeous costumes that issue on Sundays out of the filthiest shanties, more especially when the costume of the previous day is recollected to have been two rather sparse and very dirty garments of once-white canvas, and certainly no boots. To attire the whole population so gorgeously of course many skilled tailors are required, and in the census of 1881 no fewer than 10,000 females returned themselves as seamstresses. These ladies, however, have other sources of income besides their nedles. With such splendid habiliments to show on Sunday, the negro, of course, is constant in attendance at church. On entering the men’s first care is to remove their boots, not from any leaning towards Mohammedanism, but because they are painful In connection with this I may mention a ludicrous occurrence which caused some amusement among the English residents in Barbadoes. A black man holding a situation of trust in the , garrison (I forget whether he was a soldier or not) was engaged to a black lady, and the General promised to be present at the wedding. On the appointed day the bridal party duly arrived, the bride clad in white satin, with the orthodox orange flowers, veil, &c., and white satin shoes. Everything was ready, but the General had not arrived. The bride became more and more uneasy, and still the General came not; the sweat poured down her face, and still she held out; but at last human nature could stand it no longer, and the faithful bridegroom knelt down and removed the white

satin slippers which had caused so much agony. Soon after the emancipation of her poor feet the General f arrived, and all went well, but still the ceremony was held to have been in ; some degree warred. Macmillan's ■ wm