Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1837-08-18
Translated for The National hnteHigencer- from
De La Marines Voyage IN ME East.
SYRIAN MARRIAGE CEREMONY.
FAcARpIN's Tower, Sep

De La .Mariine's Voyage IN he East.
SYRIAN MARRIAGE CEREMONY.
FAcARDIN's TOWER, Sept 81.
We passed the entire day at the marriage of q
Syrian, Greek girl. The ceremony began with
long procession of Grecian, Arabian, and Syr-
ian women, who came some on horseback, 9TH
ers on foot, through the paths bordered by aloe
and mulberry trees, to attend the atfianced du-
ring this fatiguing day. For many days many
nights, already, certain number OF these ft-
males have never left the house of Habib, and
have not ceased to utter cries, songs, and shrill
and prolonged groans, like those vocal shouts
which the vntageurs and hay-makers pour forth
in our own France during harvest. These clam
ors, these lamentations, these tears, & these pre-
medtated rejoicngs, are to prevent the bride
from sleeping several days and nights before the
marriage. The old and young men of The hus-
bands family, do the same things on their side,
and do not allow him to snatch any repose du-
ring eight days. We do not understand, in the
least, the motives for this conduct.
Introduced into the gardens of Habib's
house, the women enter the interior of the d.
van, to pay their respects to the young lady, 10
admire her dress, and to witness the ceremo-
MES. As to ourselves, we were left in the
court, or introduced into an inferior divan.-
There table was placed in the European
style, covered with multitude of preserved
fruits, of cakes of honey and sugar, liquors and
sherbets, and during the entire evening, this
collation. is renewed in proportion as it has been
DESTROYED by the numerous visiterS. succeed
ed in obtaining entrance, by exception, even
into the divan of the women, at the precise mo-
ment when the Greek archbishop was giving
the nuptial benediction. The girl was stand
ing by the side of her intended, covered from
head to foot with veil of red gauze, embro-
dered with gold. For an instant, the priest
has put aside the veil, and the young man has
been able to catch glimpse, for the first time,
Of her to whom he united his existence. She
was eminently beautiful. The pale hue, with
which fatigue and emotion covered her cheeks,
apaleness rendered more striking by the re-
Elections Of the red veil, and the innumerable
ornaments of gold, silver, pealrs and diamonds
with which she was loaded, and by the long
tresses of black hair which fell, in every direc-
ton, over her person. Her eyebrows painted
black, as also her lashes and the borders of her
eyes, her hands, with the extremities of the en-
gers aud the nails, stained red with the henna,
and painted with squares and moresque designs,
a!lgave to this fascinating beauty tone of nov
city and solemnity for us, with which we were
profoundly impressed. Her husband had
scarcely time to regard her. He appeared o.
vercome and expiring himself with the weight
of his watchings and latigues, by means of
which these barbarous customs exhaust the
strength of even love itself.
The bishop received from the hands of one of
his priests a crown of natural flowers, placed it
on the head of the girl, took it off again, plac-
ed it on the hair Of the young man, took il a
gain to replace it on the veil Of the bride, and
thus passed it several times from one head to
the other. Rings were likewise, by turns, put
on the fingers of each. They then broke the
same piece of bread; they drank the consecra-
ted wine from the same cup. After which, the
female friends carried off the young bride to the
apartments, where the women alone were al
lowed to follow, in order to change her toilet
The father, and the friends of the husband, led
him also away, on their side, into the garden,
and they made him sit down at the foot of a
tree, surrounded by all the males of his family
The musicians and the dancers then arrived,
and continued, until the sun had set, their bar
baric symphonies, their shrill cries, and their
contortions around the young man, who had
fallen to sleep at the base of the trees, and
whom his friends in vain aroused every ms
tant.
When night had arrived, he was conducted
alone, and in procession, to the dwelling of his
father. Eight days must elapse before per-
mission is given to the groom to go and take
his vile and carry her home with him.
The women who filled Habits house with
their shrieks, left likewise, little later. Moth.
ing could have been more picturesque than this
immense procession of women and girls, in the
strangest and most splendid costumes, covered
with sparkling stones, each one surrounded
with their maids, and slaves bearing torches
of resinous fire to light their road, and prolong-
ing in this manner their luminous course, amid
the long and narrow pathways shaded by aloe
and orange trees, on the banks of the sea, at
times in long silence, at others uttering cries
which We're echoed even on the waves, or amid
the plane groves at the foot of Mount Liba-
nus. We entered our own dwelling, near the
country seat of Habib, where we YET heard the
murmur of the conversation among the women
Of the family: we assembled our terrace, and we
followed, for long time, with the eye, those
wandering fires which circulated on all sides a.
midst the trees of the plain.
July 90, 1887. j. C. b.