A Turkish wedding, as shown by this description, in its frivolous forms and the absence of the sanctity of a religious ordinance, fails to impress one with the solemnity of the Christian rite. The whole ceremony contains many ridiculous superstitions and much that is worse than absurd.
Polygamy was no invention of Mohammed’s: he found it already firmly rooted in Arabia. To abolish it was an idea that could never have entered his mind. We must only be grateful to him for having to some extent set bounds to its evils. But those bounds are thoroughly inadequate. Four wives and perfect facility of divorce are bad enough, without reckoning the permission to keep as many concubines as a man pleases. But the wretched necessities of polygamy and divorce are wrapped up with the harem system. The latter absolutely demands the former; and though cases of true love do exist in Turkey where a man resigns the so-called pleasures of polygamy and of possessing odalisks; yet it may be confidently asserted that until the harem system, and with it polygamy, are finally abolished, the condition of Mohammedan women can never be anything but degraded.
Interested marriages are often contracted by young Turks, to whom ambition or gratitude recommends as partners some faded court beauties called Serailis, or the ugly and deformed daughter of the patron to whom they owe their position and upon whom they depend for future promotion. The number of vizirs and pashas that have attained such high rank solely through the interest and influence of their wives is very great; a fact which, if better known by Europeans, would disabuse them of the idea that a Turkish wife of every rank is the slave of her husband. I have seen innumerable cases denoting the reverse. The fraternity of meek, submissive, and hen-pecked husbands is, I suppose, like the gypsies, to be found all over the world. Sultan Abdul-Medjid, on being informed that his favorite wife had concealed one of her lovers in a cupboard, had a scene with her, during which he received a sound box on the ear. At last the tyranny of this much-loved beauty passed all endurance, and the Sultan decided upon putting her away and sending her into exile. His Grand Vizir Reshid Pasha, was charged with the task of visiting the Sultana and enforcing upon her the Imperial order. She received him, heard her fate unmoved, and, still confident in the supreme power she possessed over her lord and master, quietly collared his Grand Vizir and walked him out of the room.
O⸺ Pasha, in his young days, contracted a marriage of this kind with the daughter of an influential minister. She was humpbacked, with a face so distorted as to render a disinterested marriage hopeless. I made her acquaintance at Uskup, as she passed through on her way to the interior of Albania, where her husband had been appointed Governor-General. She told me that she had made a great sacrifice in leaving her beautiful Yahli on the Bosphorus and undertaking a journey the perils and hardships of which were nearly killing her, but that she thought it her duty to be near her husband lest he, yielding to the temptation occasioned by the absence of her surveillance, should form new ties that might rob her of her rights. “Do you Franks,” she asked, “trust your husbands out of your sight?”
A week after her departure, another fussy arrival of harems put Uskup into commotion. On my inquiring whose they were, I was told that they were the beautiful Circassian Odalisks of O⸺ Pasha, who were following the steps of his wife, entirely unknown to her. On arriving at their destination I learnt that they had been carefully smuggled by their owner into a house which he visited under the pretext of the long teptil, or night watches, he had to make in the town in order to see that all was right among his unruly Arnaouts. It is true the story cuts two ways: it not only shows that the husband dared not be openly unfaithful to his wife, but also that her suspicious surveillance was entirely ineffectual.
CHAPTER XVI.
CHRISTIAN WEDDINGS—GREEK, BULGARIAN, AND ARMENIAN.
Greek Weddings.—The Arravón—Dowry—The Bridegroom’s Call of Ceremony—The Wedding Festivities—Monday: the Sifting of the Grain—Wednesday: the Making of the Wedding Cakes—Friday: Bridal Presents—Saturday: Invitations; Dressing of the Bride’s Hair and Shaving of the Bridegroom—Sunday: the Wedding; Kissing of the Bridegroom—The Second Arravón—Duties of Best Man—At the Church—Ceremonies on re-entering the House—The final Dance—Monday: Feeding of the Bride—Offering at the Well—Separation and Divorce among the Greeks.
Bulgarian Weddings.—Betrothal—Never Broken—Preparatory Ceremonies—The Wedding—Procession to the Cellar—Christian Marriage Service mixed with Dionysian Rites—Offering to the Water Deities—Punishment of Unchastity—Turkish Raids upon Brides—Bulgarian Trousseau—Marriage among the Wealthy Bulgarians of the Towns—Ladies from Abroad.
Armenian Weddings.—The Offer—Wedding Ceremonies—Friday: the Bath—Saturday: the Maidens’ Feast—Sunday: Feast of Young Men and Girls—Caging of the Bride—The Bridegroom’s Toilette—The Barber—Procession to the Bride—“Half-Service”—To the Church—Multiple Marriage—Rite—Return to the House—Scramble for Stockings—The Virgin Guard—Wednesday: Conclusion of Marriage—Etiquette of Conversation.
Greek weddings vary in form and custom according to the country in which they are celebrated and to the degree of modification ancient customs have experienced under the influence of modern ideas. One of the most interesting forms is that practised at Vodena (Edessa, the ancient capital of Macedonia), as comprising in its forms many of the customs and usages of the ancient Greeks. The preliminary ceremony is the ἀρραβών, or troth, which, though it is not a religious rite, is considered binding, and cannot lightly be set aside. An incident that happened at Broussa will show how strong is the bond of this mere verbal engagement. A young Greek girl, who had been talked about in the town, was portioned by her influential protector, and engaged to a young peasant who was unacquainted with her and ignorant of her antecedents and was induced to pledge his word to marry her. All had been prepared for the ceremony. The young man was hurried to church, where he and his friends became acquainted with the bride. Her appearance did not satisfy the bridegroom, and he refused to fulfil his promise. The officiating priest insisted on the completion of the ceremony, in right of the bridegroom’s pledged word. A scuffle ensued, and the active peasant, helped by his friends, effected his escape from the church, leaving his fez in the hands of one of his antagonists; and, later on, obtained his release by legal proceedings.