CHAPTER XXIII.
A Greek Marriage—The Day before the Bridal—The Wedding Garments—Cachemires—Ceremony of Reception—The Golden Tresses—Early Hours of the Greek Church—Love of the Greek Women for Finery—The Bridal Procession—The Marriage—The Nuptial Crowns—Greek Funerals.
There are few ceremonies more amusing (for that is really the correct term) than a Greek marriage. All is glitter and gossipy; and so many ancient and classical usages are still retained, that it is a curious as well as an interesting sight to a stranger.
Having received an invitation to the wedding of a fair neighbor, I joined a party of friends who were about to visit her, according to custom, on the previous day; to offer their congratulations, and to give their opinions with regard to the bridal gear, as well as to assist in weaving the golden tresses by which a Greek bride is always distinguishable.
We found one of the daughters of the family waiting to receive us on the terrace; and, as she stood smiling and blushing in reply to our salutations, her bright black eyes dancing with joy, under the shadow of an overhanging vine, whose clusters of rich purple grapes fell temptingly through the open trellises, she formed as pretty a picture of young, gay, light-hearted beauty, as the eye ever lingered on. When we had exchanged compliments, she led us through the center saloon to an inner apartment, where we found the bride elect; a fair, dove-eyed girl, who was sitting upon the sofa with her hand clasped in that of one of her young companions.
On one side of the room were displayed the bridal dresses; and on the other were collected all the smaller articles of her toilette. It was a confusion of blonde, and gauze, and flowers, and diamonds; satin slippers, embroidered handkerchiefs, and cachemire shawls; and I really pitied the owner of all this finery when I remarked how much she was harassed and oppressed by the commotion which surrounded her, and the crowd of company that came and went in one endless stream.
Sweetmeats and coffee having been served, every article of the bridal costume was exhibited separately to the guests, commented on, and replaced. The shawls and jewels were examined with the most earnest attention, for these gauds are the glory of the Greek women, who, in speaking of a married acquaintance, seldom tell you that she is happy from being the wife of a man of amiability and high principle; but invariably reply to your inquiry by the assurance that she is a most fortunate person, to whom her husband has given six or seven cachemires; or that she is, poor thing! very much to be pitied, having been thrown away upon an individual who can only afford to allow her a couple of shawls! To such a height, indeed, do the Greek ladies carry their love for this article of dress, and their desire to display it, that they will suffocate in a cachemire during the hottest day in summer, and even wear it in a ball-room!
When all the bridal paraphernalia had been exhibited, the mother of the bride entered the room, carrying in one hand a fillagreed silver essence bottle, and in the other a censer of the same material, in which were burning aloes, myrrh, and perfumed woods. Making the tour of the apartment, she flung the perfume over each individual, varying her address according to the circumstances of the guests. To the unmarried she accompanied the action by saying, “May your own bridal follow!”—while to the matrons of the party she said, “May you also see the bridal of your children!”
When the old lady had withdrawn, all the more youthful of the visitors formed a group in the center of the floor. One laughing girl held a pair of diminutive scales; and another was laden with the glittering skeins of flat gold thread, of which were to be woven the singular head-dress to which I have already made allusion. The gallantry of the bridegroom had induced him to send forty drachms of this expensive gewgaw to his fair mistress, instead of ten; the largest quantity that the laws of the Greek Church allow to be worn; and the first care of the party was, consequently, to separate the skeins, and to weigh out the portion destined for the bride. When this had been accomplished, a score of us were employed at once. The threads were drawn out singly, in lengths of about three yards, and were then woven together at the end into a sort of coronet, whence they fell in a golden shower to the floor.
When this pretty and amusing occupation was over, we took our leave, each embracing the bride in turn, who still retained her place upon the sofa; and every individual, as she passed the bridal gear, flinging over it a handful of small silver coin.
I was summoned on the morrow at an early hour; for all the religious ceremonies of the Greeks are performed at most unseasonable times. Even their Sunday mass, when the poorer portions of the population, after having toiled throughout the previous six days, might be excused a little sluggishness, commences at daybreak; and no one who has spent four months in a Greek village, as we did, can have failed to be awakened at dawn by the rattling together of the two cedar sticks, which are the substitute for a bell; followed by the frightful drawl of the inferior priest, who traverses the streets, and utters a second invitation to prayer, half growl and half shriek; infinitely more calculated to frighten away the pious from his vicinity, than to induce them to seek it.
But the call is, nevertheless, answered. Every cottage pours forth its inhabitants; and even at daybreak the females deck themselves out in all the finery of which they are possessed. Here it is a red gown, and a yellow shawl—there a blue turban, and a pair of pink shoes—in short, there is nothing more laughable than the idea that the poorer class of Greek women entertain of a becoming toilette. Your maid answers the clapping of your hands, (for bells there are none in Eastern houses) in a turban of colored muslin or gauze a yard square, and half a yard high; or, if she be an elderly woman, in a little red woollen cap with a purple silk tassel, bound to her head by a painted handkerchief, over which is twisted a thick plait of hair, generally false—the shortest of petticoats, the most showy of stockings, the smartest of aprons, and a pair of earrings frequently hanging to her shoulders; and poor indeed must be the female servant in a Greek family who is not the happy possessor of three or four gold rings!
But I have, meanwhile, forgotten the pretty bride, who was to be married at the house of an intimate friend of our’s; and who, on my arrival there, was momentarily expected. The center of the great saloon was covered by a Turkey carpet, on which stood a reading-desk, overlaid by a gold-embroidered handkerchief, and supporting a Bible and the two marriage rings; the whole bright with the profusion of silver money that had been scattered over them. The lady of the house was to officiate as “Godmother” to the bride, an office somewhat similar to that of bride’s-maid; and she was even at that early hour sparkling with jewels.
At length the sounds of music announced the arrival of the marriage train; and we hastened to a window to watch for their approach. The procession was an interesting one. The musicians were succeeded by the bridegroom elect, walking between his own father and the father of his bride; the fair girl followed, accompanied by a couple of her young companions; and the two mothers, attended by “troops of friends,” closed the train.
They were met at the threshold by the Archbishop of Nournaudkeüy and a party of priests, who immediately commenced chanting the marriage service; and, as they ascended the stairs, showers of money were flung over them from above.
In five minutes, the spacious saloon was filled to suffocation; the young couple were placed upon the edge of the carpet; the nuptial crowns, formed of flowers, ribbons, and gold-thread, were deposited on the reading-desk; and the rector of the parish, in a robe of brocaded yellow satin fringed with silver, began a prayer, that was caught up at intervals by the choral boys, and repeated in a wild chant. At the conclusion of this prayer, which was of considerable length, the attendant priests flung over the Archbishop his gorgeous vestments of violet satin, embroidered with gold, and girdled with tissue; and he advanced to the reading-desk, and took thence the two brilliant diamond rings, with which he made the cross three times, on the forehead, lips, and breast of the contracting parties; and then placed them in the hand of the “Godmother,” who, putting one upon the finger of each, continued to hold them there while the Prelate read a portion of the Gospel: after which she changed them three times, leaving them ultimately in the possession of their proper owners. This done, the Archbishop put the hand of the bride into that of her husband, and went through the same ceremonies with the nuptial crowns that he had previously enacted with the rings; they were then placed upon the heads of the young couple; and, a goblet of wine being presented to the Archbishop, he blessed it, put it to his lips, handed it to the bride and bridegroom, and thence delivered it up to the “Godmother.”
The crowns were next changed three several times from the one head to the other; and, several wax candles being lighted, as I have described them to have been during the Easter ceremonies at the Fanar, the whole party walked in procession round the carpet; and then it was that the silver shower fell thick and fast about them: the floor was literally covered.
When the chanting ceased, the bride raised the hand of her new-made husband to her lips; after which every relative and friend of either party approached, and kissed them on the forehead. The Archbishop cast off his robes; the children scrambled for the scattered money; the band in the outer hall burst into an enlivening strain; and such of the company as were of sufficient rank to entitle them to do so, followed the bride, and the lady of the house to an inner saloon; where a train of servants were in attendance, bearing trays of preserved fruits and delicate little biscuits, which were given to each person to carry away. Liqueurs were then offered, and subsequently coffee; after which each married lady made a present to the bride of some article of value, previously to her departure for her home, whither we all accompanied her in procession; and took our leave at the portal to return to the house of her friends, and join in the cheerful morning-ball which was about to commence.
The effect of the golden tress that I had assisted to weave was very beautiful, binding as it did the rich dark hair of the bride upon her fair young brow, and then falling to her feet; and her whole costume would have been eminently graceful, had she not been sinking under the heat and weight of the eternal cachemire. The nuptial crowns which I have mentioned are about a foot in height, and shaped like a beehive; when they were removed from the heads of the young couple, they were carefully enveloped in a handkerchief of colored gauze, and borne away to be hung up in the chapel of the bridegroom’s house; where they will remain until the death of either of the parties, when the deceased is crowned for the second and last time, in the open coffin in which he is borne to the grave.
The Greeks make almost as much toilette for a funeral as for a marriage. Where the deceased is young and pretty, she is decked out in her gayest apparel, and not unfrequently has her eyebrows stained, and a quantity of rouge spread over her cheeks, to cheat death for a few brief hours of his lividness; her gloved hands are carefully displayed; she is tricked out in jewels; and this frightful mockery is rendered still more revolting by the fact that she is thus paraded through the streets, followed by her female relatives, who weep, and shriek, and bewail themselves with a transient violence truly national. At the grave-side all the finery is stripped from the stiffened corpse: the friends carry it away; a cover is placed over the coffin; and the poor remains, that were only a few instants previously so lavishly adorned, are consigned to the earth of which they are so soon to form a part.