[172] Whatever prudes and snobs may think of this chapter, I believe that the sensible and intelligent reader will agree with me in saying, that the marriage and divorce ceremonies of the Gipsies are historical gems of the most antique and purest water.—Ed.
[173] On their return from church, the bride is seated at one extremity of a room, with the unmarried girls by her; the bridegroom on the right, and the father and mother, or those who perform their office, on the left. The male part of the company stand in the corners, singing, and playing on the guitar. About one o’clock, the oldest matron, accompanied by others advanced in years, conducts the bride into the bed-room, which, according to the custom of Spain, is usually a small chamber, without a window, opening into the general apartment. Tune vetula, manu sud sponsæ naturalibus admota membranam, vulvæ ori oppositam unguibus scindit et cruorem à plagâ fusum linteolo excipit. The Gitanos without make a loud noise with their whistles, and the girls, striking the door, sing the following couplets, or some other like them:
“Abra viñd la puerta Snr. Joaquin
Que le voy à viñd à poner un pañuelito
En las manos que tienen que llorar
Toditas las callis.”
The bride then returns from the chamber, accompanied by the matrons, and the new-married couple are placed upon a table, where the bride dances, et coram astantibus linteolum, internerati pudoris indicium explicat; whilst the company, throwing down their presents of sweetmeats, &c., dance and cry, “Viva la honra.”—Bright, on the Spanish Gipsy marriage.
Before the marriage festival begins, four matrons—relations of the contracting parties—are appointed to scrutinize the bride; in which a handkerchief, of the finest French cambric, takes a leading part. Should she prove frail, she will likely be made away with, in a way that will leave no trace behind. In carrying out some marriage festivals, a procession will take place, led by some vile-looking fellow, bearing, on the end of a long pole, the diclé and unspotted handkerchief; followed by the betrothed and their nearest friends, and a rabble of Gipsies, shouting and firing, and barking of dogs. On arriving at the church, the pole, with its triumphant colours, is stuck into the ground, with a loud huzza; while the train defile, on either side, into the church. On returning home, the same takes place. Then follows the most ludicrous and wasteful kind of revelling, which often leaves the bridegroom a beggar for life.—Borrow, on the Spanish Gipsy marriage.—Ed.
[174] The part of the marriage ceremony of the Gipsies which relates to the chastity of the bride has a great resemblance to a part of the nuptial rites of the Russians, and the Christians of St. John, in Mesopotamia and Chaldea. Dr. Hurd says: “When a new-married couple in Russia retire to the nuptial bed, an old domestic servant stands sentinel at the chamber-door. Some travellers tell us that this old servant, as soon as it is proper, attends nearer the bedside, to be informed of what happens. Upon the husband’s declaration of his success and satisfaction, the kettle-drums and trumpets proclaim the joyful news.” Among the Christians of St. John, as soon as the marriage is consummated, “both parties wait upon the bishop, and the husband deposes before him that he found his wife a virgin; and then the bishop marries them, puts several rings on their fingers, and baptizes them again . . . . A marriage with one who is discovered to have lost her honour beforehand but very seldom, if ever, holds good.”
When speaking of the marriages of the Mandingoes, at Kamalia, about 500 miles in the interior of Africa, Park says: “The new-married couple are always disturbed toward morning by the women, who assemble to inspect the nuptial sheet, (according to the manners of the ancient Hebrews, as recorded in Scripture,) and dance around it. This ceremony is thought indispensably necessary, nor is the marriage considered valid without it.” Park’s Travels, page 399.
By the laws of Menu, the Hindoo could reject his bride, if he found her not a virgin.—Sir William Jones.
[The reader will observe that the marriage ceremony of the Gipsies, though barbarous, is very figurative and emphatic, and certainly moral enough. To show that the Gipsies, as a people, have not been addicted to the most barbarous customs, in regard to marriage, I note the following very singular form of the Scottish Highlanders, which, according to Skene, continued in use until a very late period. “This custom was termed hand-fasting, and consisted in a species of contract between two chiefs, by which it was agreed that the heir of one should live with the daughter of the other, as her husband, for twelve months and a day. If, in that time, the lady became a mother, or proved to be with child, the marriage became good in law, even although no priest had performed the marriage in due form; but should there not have occurred any appearance of issue, the contract was considered at an end, and each party was at liberty to marry, or hand-fast, with any other.” Which fact shows that Highland chiefs, at one time, would have annulled any, or all, of the laws of God, whenever it would have served their purposes.—Ed.]
[175] On reading the above ceremony to an intelligent native of Fife, he said he had himself heard a Gipsy, of the name of Thomas Ogilvie, say that the Tinklers were married in the way mentioned. On one occasion, when a couple of respectable individuals were married, in the usual Scottish Presbyterian manner, at Elie, in Fife, Ogilvie, Gipsy-like, laughed at such a wedding ceremony, as being, in his estimation, no way binding on the parties. He at the same time observed that, if they would come to him, he would marry them in the Tinkler manner, which would make it a difficult matter to separate them again.