SOME CURIOUS MARRIAGE CUSTOMS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume V, Issue 52, 27 December 1890, Page 8

SOME CURIOUS MARRIAGE CUSTOMS.

A curious old custom still exists in many provinces in Holland. If a young man is in love with a girl, and wishesto ask her hand in marriage, he goes aliont it in the following manner : —He buys a small sweet cake, and, wrapping it up in soft paper, proceeds to the house of his inamorata ; upon his arrival he is ushered into the midst of the family circle; without a word he walks up to the young lady he wishes to make his wife and lays the cake on' the table before her. The rest of the family affect not to notice anything unusual and continue their work or their reading: the young man turns aside and talks to the father or mother on some very ordinary subject, keeping his eyes eagerly fixed on the girl's face while he is conversing. If she accepts his offer, she takes up the cake and eats it. Sometimes, though Dutch, she is coquettish, and tortures the young man by turning it over and playing with it, before she decides to bite, and then enraptures him by eating it to the last crumb. If, on the other hand, she wishes to have nothing more to do with her admirer, she quickly rewraps the cake in its covering, and puts it back on the table. In this case the young man takes up the cake, satisfied with his refusal, and with a ‘ Vaarvoel byzamen !’ leaves the house. The matter is then kept a profound secret by both families, and the outer world never hears of it. If, on the other hand, the affair progresses favourable, and the suitor is accepted, the father takes him on one side to ask about his business prosjiects, and if he can afford to give his wife a wedding journey up the Rhine, the ideal wedding trip of all Dutchmen. After the young couple become engaged, unlike most Continental nations, they have the same freedom as we in England under similar circumstances, and they are at liberty to break off the engagement for good reason.