The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1873-03-20
A Jewish Wedding in Algeria.

A jewish wedding IN Algeria.
From the subjoined sketch of jew
ish wedding in Algeria, extracted from
the recent work of Lady Herbert on
"Algeria in 1871, ." it will be seen what
fearful and wonderful thing the we'd
ding ceremony, as practiced at the pre-
sent day in that country, is. Particu-
lar harsh is it upon the poor bride; so
much so that our American maidens
would doubtless declare, almost to a
man, that sooner than endure all the
steaming. scrubbing, fumigating, par
boiling, dressing, undressing, undress-
ing, ballooing, psalmsinging, and mis-
cellaneous torture described by the fair
tourist, they would remain single all
their born days. The account runs
thus, in Lady H. IS language:
We paused in our sightseeing to go
with Nine. de C. and her beautiful
daughter to see Jewish wedding, for
which she had kindly obtained us an
invitation. We were received In an
allowed room, where breakfast of
sweetmeats, cakes and sweet wines were
set out, the bride and her parents being
seated on a divan at one end, dressed in
rich Jewish costume. After a short
time we were told to precede the young
lady to the Moorish vapor bath, which
is the next part of the ceremony. Such
a marvellous scene as there met our eyes
1 despair of reproducing on paper
About fifty Jewish young girls, from
twelve to twenty years of age, whose
only clothing was scarf OF gold or sill
yer gauze round their loins, with their
beautiful dark hair all down their backs,
and their lovely white necks and arms
! covered with necklaces and bracelets,
were seen dimly through cloud of
steam and incense, standing in the wa
ter, waiting for the bride, and when she
appeared they received her with loud,
shrill cries of Gill Ii! Ii !" in a con-
tinually ascending scale. And among
these girls were hideous negresses
! equally scantily clothed, and one or two
of them with their black woolly hair
dyed bright orange color these wcre
! the bathing women. They seized US by
the arm and wanted to force us to nm
dress too, which we stoutly resisted and
took refuge on the raised marble slab
which surrounded the bath, and where
the pretty little bride, with her mother
and aunts, was standing waiting to be
unrobed. They took off her heavy vel
vet clothes, and she appeared in beau
tiful gold-fgured gauze chemise and
| lovely short red and gold drawers
they then led her, with the same cries,
into an inner room, which was sitting
with steam, and here the poor child
who was only thirteen, remained fol
three mortal hours, the women pouring
water on her head from picturesquely
shaped gold jars, and every kind Of cos
metic and sweet incense being rubbed
upon he. Being unable to stand tn,
intense he-.t and overpowering smell
any longer, we escaped for a time int,
the open air, and returned after abou
an hour to find another bride goinl
through the same ceremonies. Some o
the bridesmaids were very beautiful
one especially, though a Jewiss, ha,
regular golden hair and blue eyes
And the whole scene was like a bale
at the opera, or rather a set of Nater
nymths or naiads in a picture, not hk
any thing IN real life. Their gloriou
hair floating over their shoulders, wit
their beautifully modelled arms rounds
, in graceful curves as they disporte
themselves around the bride, woul
have driven a painter or a sculptor vii
/ with delight. But I could not get owe
! the indelicacy of the whole thing it wa
1 a scene IN the nude with vengeance.
At half past three o'clock, the follow
ing morning, we got up and went to th
q brides house for the conclusion of th
, ceremony. great crown of men an
musicians were grouped IN the lows
= court. Above, the bride was sitting
], state. in the deep recess Of a handsoH
3 Moresque room, veiled in white gauz