The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-06-05 00:00:00

AN ARMENIAN BRIDE.
(From the Pictorial World.)

A lady living in Constantinople gives a very interest-
ing account of a Turkish, or rather an Armenian wed-
ding. The bride, although comparatively rich, was to
marry a poor clerk. She was covered with a most
curious veil made of long slips of gold tinsel which
reached to her feet. Through this you could not see,
except the bottom of her dress. Iler dress was of
white silk, brocaded with silver and pearls, and around
her waist was a wide belt containing a fortune in pre-
cious stones. Her cheeks were painted a deep
crimson, laid in on a heart shape, and another heart
was artistically put on the chin, while the rest
of the face was as white as the luminous cos-
metic could 'bring it. The eyebrows met, and also
stretched to the hair on each side of her temples, and
were as black as they could be painted. The
inside of her fingers' ends and finger-nails were
stained deep crimson. Her hair, which was long and
thick, though coarse, was braided full of little jingling
coins. The outlines of her form were, as usual,
totally hidden by the clumsily made clothes. Her
feet were encased in velvet slippers embroidered with
pearls. Large solitaire diamonds constituted her ear-
rings. Four-priests performed the ceremony, and the
wedding company waited from nine a.m. till nearly
two p.m. for them to come. The priests were decorated
with gold embroidery from head to foot, and the chief
priest wore a sort of mitre on his head, literally
blazing with jewels. The carpet was now covered with
one far more elegant, having tassels of pearls at each
corner. The chief priest took his place on the centre
of this, and the other three behind. The father of the
bride took her by the hand and led her forward to the
bridegroom, and the two then stepped before the
priest. Two boys brought cushions, with a green
wreath on each, for the bride and bridegroom. The
bride's was kept in place by the tinsel veil, but that of
the bridegroom kept sliding backward or forward all
the time, making him very uncomfortable. The bride
was under rather than over the ordinary height for
women, and the bridegroom a very tall man, and they
were obliged to stand with their foreheads touching
each other during the whole ceremony, which took cer-
tainly an hour. It seemed to consist mostly of swing-
ing of the censers and singing by the boys
and a sort of Monotonous chant by the three
priests. At last it was finished by the bridegroom
handing a plain gold ring to his bride and receiving
one from her in exchange, and then both kneeled
for a few moments while the priests chanted and the
boys swung the censers around very close to the heads
of the couple. They then roe, and the priests de-
parted, after having regaled themselves in the supper-
room alone. The party next adjourned to the supper-
room ; the bride was lifted by the men and seated
Bacchus-like on a barrel of wine, and the feast com-
menced. She had to sit there till all the wine was
drunk out of that barrel, which was nearly two hours.
She looked tired enough before all was over, for she
got nothing to eat at all. The Armenians are good
eaters, and it was daylight before the feast was con-
cluded and the guests allowed to depart,
••,,,1 -19on-ortioj Julowsii, muss az II:At; tx:.

An enumeration has just been made of the number
of trees planted during the past season in the avenues and
Boulevards of Paris to replace such have died, and the
total Is fotuid to be 178,00 q.