Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. MARRIAGE PROCESSIONS. 19. Parades in Public.—Unique features connected with betrothal and marriage in Oriental lands are the jubilant public processions. There are often three or more of these street parades in succession, for the Oriental takes great pride in display. Thus, the costumes and presents for the bride are the occasion of a street cavalcade, more or less conspicuous, in proportion to the tastes and station of the parties. When the bride goes to the home of the bridegroom, another public procession is necessary, while the largest and most brilliant of all is that of the bridegroom and his company. 20. Bridal Costumes.—Here again custom widely differs among various Eastern peoples, and among the same people, because of the wealth and circumstances of the parties. Thus, among the peasantry of Palestine, remote from the route of tourists, Elihu Grant witnessed a noisy procession of women and children in a village on the occasion of taking home the wedding costumes purchased for the maiden by the bridegroom. The garments were borne through the streets with shouting, beating of drums, and firing of guns, to attract attention to the bride's costume, a red striped dress displayed on a stick, a gay jacket on a cross-stick frame to hold out the sleeves, a girdle, a heavy coin head-dress, and three mirrors, one on each arm and one on the breast. This Zefteh, or parade, was accompanied by crowds of women singing and dancing, adding to the gaiety of the occasion. Lane witnessed similar processions in Egypt, called a Zeffeh. Early in the last century, among the middle-class families, the bride was escorted in state to the bath, headed by a party of musicians, with hautboys, drums, and persons bearing trays covered with silk kerchiefs, having the linen and utensils f...