, 1890-01-19
AT A WEDDING IN SITKA.
DESCRIPTION FROM ALASKA OF AN
EVENT OF THE GREEK CHURCH.
Golden Crowns Held Aloft-The Cross Of
T~apers-How the Bride Wa Given Away
and Other Details of the Pretty Cere-

Iapers-hOW the Bride was Given Away
and Other Details of the Pretty Cere-
mony.
Immediately north of and adjoining
Sitka is one of the largest and most at
t~ractive Indian villages in Alaska In
summer, when employment at the sal
mon canneries is abundant, nearly all
the able bodied men and their families
are of some n hundred and fifty miles
engaged in fishing, leaving, perhaps, not
more than four hundred of all ages and
sexes behind at the village. About the
1st of October they begin to flock back
for the winter.
Fully one-half of the adults have been
brought under the influence of the
Greco-Russian church, which is main
tanned in Alaska by money paid from
the imperial treasury at st. Petersburg,
and which church and its property are
protected by the terms of the treaty of
cession.
JUST LIKE ROYALTY.
Last night the people of Sitka witnessed
q Ute ceremony in the Cathedral of 81.
Michael's fully as interesting as the mar
rage of the Duke of Sparta and the
Princess of Germany. The bride and
groom were pure blooded Alaskan Indi-
n of the adjoining village. 1t is inter
esting to know that while the influence
of civilization has wiped out the practice
of buying and selling young girls as
wives among these people, in common
with the practice among the North
American Indians, whom these people re-
semble in only a few respects, still a
valuahla confederation antaro into tho
transaction in all cases now, which
shows the origin of the latter. The Alas
kan Indian has no ponies for gifts to the
parents of the bride, but as blankets here
are badges of wealth, as ponies are
among the plains Indians, he bears gifts
of blankets as the consideration for the
bride.
The Cathedral of st. Michael's, though
a wooden structure erected over fifty
years ago, is in an excellent state of pres
ervation, and its interior is arranged and
embellished with all the gorgeous ppur-
%enances which belong to the churches
of that communion. The wedding took
place at 6 o'clock, nearly three hours
after dark. The church was brilliantly
lighted by nearly n thousand candles,
the windows and the lantern of the Gu
pola being studded with them.--
According to- Universal custom the
brideR6st be given away by some rela-
tive. The groom, a rather good looking
young Indian, plainly and d%ecently
dressed, entered the est door of the
church and took a position in the center
of the floor about ten feet from the door.
In about half an hour afterward a knock
wao hand OF tho eoo,a l1o- .-Iaa :. 1900
opened by an usher and the bride en-
tered, dressed in pure white, with a
wreath of artificial flowers as a sort Of
chaplet. The compilations of both are as
brown as a chestnut. The person who
gave the bride away placed her on the
left of the groom.
In the meantime the gorgeous altar
screens were thrown open and the priest,
in heavy robes, incrusted with gold and
silver lace, was observed celebrating that
part of the mass pertaining to that part
of the ceremony. Large lighted candles
were then placed in the hands of the
bride and groom, and the priest, bearing
n lighted taper and the missal, came
from behind the altar, and from the
brilliantly lighted sanctuary, which no
woman is ever allowed to enter, APP
preached a small desk in front of the
altar screen and read a portion of the
ritual in Russian, and again repeating it
in English and Thinklet. This portion
concluded, in which the choir overhead
joined in singing, he proceeded to the
spot where the expectant couple stood,
and crossing his hands with theirs, and
each holding their tapers SO as to form a
OrOcc ha continued hiO ran;t,l &c +l,o
ritual, the choir making responses.
At this point the bride and groom
placed their rings in his hands, and keep
ing the hands of all three in the form of
a cross, he led them forward to a small
dais in front of the desk. The bride was
attended by two women dressed in white,
and the groom by a like number of
young men of his own race. While the
procession thus advanced to the dais the
ritual was chanted by the priest, the
responses being made in the choir. The
priest took his place behind the desk,
and for half an hour intoned the words
of the ritual, first in Russian and then
from an English translation made by
Bishop Vladimar, of San Francisco.
THE GoL CROWNS.
Two heavy gold crowns were then
placed upon the heads of the bride and
groom, and the rings which had received
the blessings of the priest before the
bride and groom were conducted to the
dais were restored to the latter, the ring
worn by the bride when she entered the
church being placed on one of the fingers
of the groom, and the n worn by the
groom placed on the appropriate finger
of the bride. The information of the
ritual proceeded for another half hour,
the massive and beautiful golden crowns
being held above the heads of the bride
and groom by the attendants, each tax
ing turns.
At last the bride and groom passed
around the outer altar three times and
halted again in front of the reading desk.
Now the groom saluted the bride, and
the ceremony was at an end, and the
parties were SO i~nseparably united for
life that 10 divorce recognized by the
church can sever them. The church was
filled with people. There are no seats
or pews in the cathedral, and all stood
during the entire ceremony. About a
dozen white gentlemen and ladies were
spectators, and the rest, about 200, were
native men, women and children.-Sitka
Letter in Washington Post.
Misc TTDpar Topoa foo bar Hrotbar