“I save money for buy wife. When I save three pounds I buy wife, one wife. I now have save two pounds. I have wife next year.”
The contract between bridegroom and deputy is nearly always verbal, but in presence of three or more witnesses. The first chapter of the Koran is recited by them in unison, and certain prayers or other formulae are repeated, and the bridegroom is fairly “hooked.” Before they separate they fix the night when the bride is to be taken to the bridegroom’s house.
Eight or ten days pass away. He sends presents to her, and she and her family are busy preparing linen, carpets, clothing, and other items of an outfit for the bride, so that all the dowry and generally much more is expended for her use. The articles thus bought belong to her under all circumstances, and she takes them away in case she is divorced.
Two or three nights before the wedding the bridegroom hangs lanterns in front of his house to indicate what is coming, and these lanterns remain there till after the wedding. On the last night of his bachelorhood he gives a party, and it is a pleasing custom of the country that the persons invited to this party are expected to bring or send presents, so that the entertainment generally pays for itself, and very handsomely, too.
Traces of this custom are found in American weddings, where the relations and friends of the victims are expected to “come down” with valuable articles that may be useful in housekeeping, and at the same time will “spout” well at the pawnbroker’s.
The day before the bride is to be brought home she goes to the bath; her feminine friends and relatives accompany her in procession. In front are the musicians; then come married relatives; then unmarried girls and then the bride.
She walks under a canopy of bright colored silk, carried by four men who sustain a pole at each corner. The canopy is open in front, but closed on the other sides and the bride walking beneath it is completely concealed by her dress which generally consists of red silks or a red cashmere shawl over her ordinary clothing. Two of her friends walk with her under the canopy, one on each side and the procession is ended by a couple of musicians and the rag-tag of small boys that adhere to processions in all parts of the globe.
The party remains several hours in the bath which is generally hired for the occasion, and they sometimes have a grand feast there. Then they return to her house and have another feast, and on the following afternoon she is taken to the bridegroom’s house in a procession similar to that of the bath. She is conducted to the harem; her friends sup with her and then depart.
The same evening the bridegroom submits himself to the manipulations of his barber, and then goes to one of the mosques accompanied by musicians, torch-bearers, and friends.