Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-07-07
A MONGOLIAN

the wedding" was the greeting with
which / was received in a small cluster
of Mongol tents, where l went to pass a
few weeks one autumn. 1 had heard
nothing about it, but was we'll pleased
at the prospect of seeing SO grand a
marriage as that of the daughter of a
high Mongol mandarin. The evening
conversation in the tent was all about
the forthcoming match, the various
things that were to be made, the pres
ents that would be given, and the feast
ing that would take place.
Next morning, before had gone out,
a tail young girl came to u tent with
a present for me from the mandarin,
and, as l was told she was his daughter,
1 thought l was doing the polite thing
when I referred to her coming mar
rage. She looked confused, and soon
left the tent, when l was informed that
I had been guilty of great rudeness, as
no bride in Mongolia is supposed to
know anything about her marriage till
she is carried off to be delivered over to
her husband. The bride herself, of
course, does know all about it, and even
assists in making the garments, but still
she is supposed not to know, and my
mistake lay in taking it for granted that
she did know. did all I could to re-
pair my error by sending her two silver
rubles to make buttons.
When 1 got about among the tents 1
found that all hands were busy. Extra
tents were being set up, carpets, felts,
boots, garments, cushions, were being
sewed, and in short, everybody was SO
busy that, as the brother of the bride
said, they had not time to eat or drink.
Attracted by the ''click, click'' of a light
hammer, l entered a tent, and found a
silversmith busy making the silver head
ornaments. He was a lama, and ex-
planned to me that he had been accom-
modated in another tent till the lama
son of the mandarin was brought home
with a broken leg. The smith had then
to give place to the doctor, and shifted
himself, his scales, his clothful of tools,
his blow pipe, and his pieces of silver,
to a humber tent, where he was the
guest of n married lama. [ called on
the broken-leggged SON., and found him
an Intelligent and pleasing young lama,
who. without the least reserve, was de-
scribing how he had come by the broken
limb. He had been intoxicated, fallen
from his horse, and actually made two
attempts to remount before he discov-
cred what was the matter. The eldest
son, a layman, and married, lived in q
cluster of tents about a mile away. His
dependents were also busy at the same
wedding outfit. In the course of con-
versation / was repeatedly asked how
we managed such affairs, and the usual
remark made when [ described our
wedding was, 'How easy!' In Mon
golia it is a formidable business, lasting
about a week, more or less.
The first thingthat arrived was a cart
load of provisions from the nearest
Chinese town, prominent among the
provisions being two piculs Zone hum
dred and thirty-three pounds) Of strong.
Chinese whisky. On expressing
my surprise at the largeness of the
quantity | was told that it was rather
small and that the amount Of spirit pro-
vided at the other end-that is, at the
b~ridegroom's house-would be much
greater. The slaughter of an OK and
several sheep followed, and elected
grumbling rather chan admiration from
the %neighbors, who thought the quantity
OF meat thus provided by no means
sufficient. However, they made the ex-
cuse that though the mandarin was high
In rank he was poor in purse, and could
not well afford more. The bridegroom's
father, on the other hand, was only a
commoner, but very rich, so they hoped
to make up for the deficiency at home
by the extra abundance at the other
end.
One afternoon a CARLOAD of ladies
arrived. The cart was of the Picking
model, drawn by two spirited horses,
and guided by a driver on horseback.
The ladies were grandly dressed in en-
broideredr robes, flaming with all manner
of figures, in almost all the colors of the
rainbow. These first arrivals were near
relations of the family, and had come
early to assist and s%uperintcno. Some
few days passed, the activity and ex-
element getting greater. The mandarin
drank whisky, took snuff, and wrote
acquisitions borrowing horses, carpets
and felts from his neighbors all round,
while the ome of his family rushed
about with sewing that had been for