A votre santâï la coumpagnie!”
Very frequently at weddings people who knew what this formula led to put hanging beams from the “pôutre,” or central rafter for the men to hold on to! “À mon beau laurier qui danse” was of course always danced at the weddings, “ma coummère, et quand je danse” was another very favourite dance, the steps going to each syllable when sung, and they also danced “Poussette,” which entirely consisted of the different inflections of the word “Poussette,” “Pou-set-te,” alternately chanted smoothly or jerkily. This feasting and dancing was kept up till five or six the next morning, and very often for the next night as well, while on the third day all the old people and non-dancers were asked in to finish up the feast in peace.—From Mrs. Mollet, Mrs. Marquand, and Mrs. Le Patourel.
There are certain gifts from a man to his fiancée which are supposed to be most unlucky to accept, as by so doing it would mean that the wedding would probably never take place. They are a watch and chain, a brooch, and a Bible, and if he should present her with a knife or a pair of scissors the only way to avert the ill-luck is to pay a penny for them. Should a girl upset a chair before the wedding her marriage will be delayed for a year. If a girl wishes to dream of the man she is to marry she must take some of the wedding cake on the day of the wedding, pass it through a married woman’s wedding ring, or, if possible, the bride’s, (a widow’s is of no avail) and put it under her pillow, and dream on it for five consecutive nights, and the last dream will come true.—From Fanny Ingrouille.
A correspondent sent the following query in 1857 to “Notes and Queries”:—“A month or two back a family, on leaving one of the Channel Islands, presented to a gardener (it is uncertain whether an inhabitant of the island or no) some pet doves, the conveyance of them to England being likely to prove troublesome. A few days afterwards the man brought them back, stating that he was engaged to be married, and the possession of the birds might be (as he had been informed) an obstacle to the course of true love remaining smooth.” This was put in the shape of a query, but no answer appeared. Doves and wild pigeons in Guernsey are supposed to be most unlucky birds to have in a house, so probably the gardener had been told that they would bring ill-luck on his future “ménage” if he accepted them. The country people carry their distrust of them so far that they say that their wings, worn in a hat, bring misfortune, and they are among the birds whose feathers in the pillows of the dying prolong the death agony.
“CHEVAUCHERIE D’ANE.”
If after marriage a couple do not agree well together, they are admonished by their neighbours by what, in England, is called “rough music.” In Métivier’s Dictionary he describes two young people, boy and girl, back to back on a donkey, representing the guilty husband and wife. They were followed by all the idlers of the district singing a scurrilous rhyme, and surrounding the house of the offending pair, where the song and its accompaniments were kept up all night.—Métivier’s Dictionary, p. 23.
Nowadays putting the man and woman back to back on the donkey seems to be discontinued, but in St. Peter’s-in-the-Wood, Miss Le Pelley, a resident in the parish, writes “If the young men of this parish find out that a man has beaten his wife they form two parties on opposite sides of his house, at about a distance of one hundred yards from it, and blow conch shells, first one and then the other in answer. They keep this noise up for a long time so that the married couple may feel ashamed of themselves. I have not heard them just lately (1896), but one year it was very frequent, and such a nuisance.”—See in Brand’s Antiquities, Vol. 2, p. 129, the articles on “Riding the Stang” in Yorkshire, said also to be known in Scandinavia.
[46] It is not unusual in the country parishes for the young men of the neighbourhood to assemble around the house in the evening and to fire off their militia muskets or fowling pieces in honour of the wedding, in return for which they are regaled with a cup of wine to drink the health of the newly-married pair. If the marriage is between persons connected with the shipping interest all the vessels in port make a point of displaying their flags, and a few bottles of wine are distributed in return among the crews. Marriages among the country people are frequently celebrated on a Sunday, immediately before the morning service. If it is the intention of the newly-married couple to attend the service they make it a point to leave the Church and return after a short interval, as an idea prevails that if they remained in the Church until the prayers of the day have been begun the marriage would be illegal.—From Rev. J. Giraud, Rector of Saint Saviour’s.
Deaths and Funerals.
As soon as a death occurs in a family a servant or friend is immediately sent round to announce the sad event to all the nearest relatives of the deceased, and the omission of this formality is looked upon as a great slight, and a legitimate cause of offence. If any person enter a house where a corpse is lying it is considered a mark of great disrespect not to offer a sight of it, and it is thought equally disrespectful on the part of the visitor if the offer is declined, as the refusal is supposed to bring ill-luck on the house. When the day is fixed for the funeral a messenger is sent to invite the friends and relatives to attend, and in times gone by if those to be invited resided at any distance it was considered proper that this messenger should be mounted on a black horse. Formerly the funeral feast was universal, of late years it is seldom heard of except in some of the old country families of the middle classes, among whom ancient customs generally abide longer than among the classes immediately above or below them.