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.
CHAPTER XXIV.
The Fèz Manufactory—Singular Scene—A Turk at Prayers—Pretty Girls—Progress of Turkish Industry—Mustapha Effendi—Process of Manufactures—Omer Effendi and the Arabs—Avanis Aga, the Armenian—The Fraud Discovered—The Imperial Apartments— Departure for the Seraï-Bournou—The Outer Court—The Orta Kapoussi—The Pestle and Mortar of the Ulémas—The Garden of Delight—The Column of Theodosius—Arrival of the Sultan—Ancient Greek Inscriptions—Confused Inscription—The Diamond—Memories of Sultan Selim.