In the mean time, the brides, each in her separate cottage, were seated on a mat or carpet, closely veiled, and preserving unbroken silence. As a doctor, I was permitted to enter the rooms where they were. I found the first, a girl of twelve or thirteen, in a long white veil, with a crowd of women round her. To gratify me, as a stranger, they bade her show herself a little. She was dressed in a silk kombáz or gown. Round her arms and legs she had bracelets; gold ornaments encircled her neck; and pieces of tinsel were stuck on her dress here and there. Her look was downcast, and she was not permitted to utter more than a single salutation, almost in a whisper. I found the other eating her supper: both looked very like the women that go about with morris-dancers or chimney-sweepers, on May-day. Although I knew the girl by sight extremely well, yet now she was obliged to use the same reserve as if she had never set eyes on me. The women also had a pipe and tabor, and dancing boys, with castanets, to amuse them.
Thus the first evening passed. On the second day the ceremony of visiting continued. In the evening, the parties went to church. The priest performed the marriage ceremony, which I did not see. They then were led, bride and bridegroom, in procession to their houses. Here it was optional whether they would retire and consummate the marriage, or join the company, where music and dancing still went on as before, with the firing of small arms; for the lower classes in Turkey never feel their joy complete, unless a great deal of powder is wasted. As one of the bridegrooms, who was to marry the maid of fifteen, was himself not thirteen, he seemed disposed to enjoy the music a little longer. He was the son of that Constantine who died of the plague. His brother, twenty years old, had been betrothed to Mariam, the bride; but, he dying, it devolved on the next brother, according to the usage of the mountain, to espouse her. Hence the disparity of years on the wrong side.[112]
The other bridegroom was a fine young man, and retired immediately.
When the evening was far advanced, the drummer went round to collect his presents. Each person dealt out small money piece by piece, naming to each piece, as he gave it, a toast. The drummer then bawled out the toast, with the name of him who proposed it, and the number of paras he had received for it, and an eulogium on the person in honour of whose name the gift was made. During the whole of the ceremony, the loo loo of the women was incessant.
Persons before marriage are affianced, and this ceremony precedes the wedding sometimes a year, sometimes several, more or less. Thus, I was once present, when Rufka bint Yusef Kobryn was affianced to Michael, the mason of Medjdelëûn; and it was done in the following way. The curate of the village came to Rufka’s father’s house at sunset, and Rufka was desired to go out to one of her neighbour’s. The young mason came with his friends, and the curate said a prayer over him. He gave to the father, as a present for Rufka, two handkerchiefs, a pair of red shoes, one white veil of English muslin, nine rubbias, (about £1) all which was to be forfeited if he refused afterwards to marry her. Brandy was then introduced; pipes were lighted; singing took place; and all the party vociferated, in set phrases in rhyme, long life and happiness to the future bride and bridegroom.
Generally the bridegroom’s friends go to fetch the bride on a mare in fantastic housings. When she enters the village of the bridegroom, he receives her with a gentle tap on the head with his pipe, his hand, or something, whilst she bows submissively in token of future obedience to his will. At a second marriage, which I witnessed at Salhiyah, one mile from the Convent, the young men, his companions, conducted the bridegroom on horseback to the village of the bride, they being on foot, singing in turns with the women who followed in the rear. The song of the men was more like hallooing than music. The women always finished with a loo loo.
This son of Constantine, of whose marriage we have just been speaking, supposed that his father had concealed a considerable sum of money somewhere in or about his cottage: and, in conjunction with his sisters, he hired a Moor from Sayda to show the spot. I have already said how great the reputation of the Moors, or men of the West (Mogrebyns) is, as fortune-tellers, discoverers of stolen goods, and conjurors. The Moor, when brought to the cottage, read certain forms of charms, during which, the bystanders, two women, the lad, and three other peasants, relations of the deceased, fancied they heard the voices of spirits under ground. The Moor pretended to address them in these words—“Show me the treasure—show me the treasure.” “We will,” answered the spirits; “but first fumigate us.” The Moor then pretended that spirits would not be contented with common incense, and demanded three metcals of ambergris, or money to buy it. Ambergris is nearly a crown a metcal. The poor peasants declared they had not so much money in the world; the Moor said he could not go on with the incantation without it, and went away with a few piasters he had first obtained as earnest money.
This man, as being at hand, was employed by the côoly or bailiff of the village, one Nassr Allah, to find a purse of money which he had lost. The Moor promised to do it, if Nassr Allah would give him forty paras. “So I will,” said Nassr Allah, “if you will first tell me what sum was in the purse lost.” The Moor would not venture upon this, happening to have no clue. The parties, therefore, were at issue; and here the matter ended.
When this anecdote was related to me, I was led to inquire what the nature of inheritance was in the village. I was told that Constantine’s son would take equal to the two daughters; and, if there had been no surviving son, then the male first cousin or cousins take equal to the two daughters. This law of inheritance is founded on the maxim that females pay no miri.
Giorgio, the young Greek who was hired at Constantinople, had departed, it will be recollected, with Mr. B., from Latakia, in November of last year, and had obtained permission before returning, to go to his native place, the island of Syra, to see his friends. He returned the 25th of September. At Constantinople, he had purchased several curious articles of dress for Lady Hester. And indeed the monastery, by little and little, became almost too small to contain her collection of costumes, in which were many things whereof any one, opportunely worn in England by a lady of fashion, would have created both admiration and jealousy among the fair sex.