The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-12-30
N()O|NGS and WEDDINGS
The ODD but INTERESTING GUS
TOMS PECULIAR TO MANY
LANDS
SOME OF THE PRETTY FORMS
One of the Most Peculiar of All Is
the Refusing by Bread or
Meat or Wine of Mar
riaEe Offer.
wives must be had
Be they good or bad"

tell whether a case of what might be
termed civilized love is any worse than
case Of savage love. The emotions Of
the soul cannot well be analysed. 1t is
well enough to know that all honorable
love aims to marriage. The outward
symptoms of love do not have to be anal
yzed; they speak for themselves. And
this Is lovemal1ing. The delightful and
1nnumerable ways in which the purest
sentiment Of the soul seeks to inf1ame
responsive feeling in the heart of anoth-
er has given rise to many sustoms of
lovemaking in many lands. 1t has fur
nfshed subject for a delightful book
just written by Louise Jordan Min.
QIerbert S. Stone & Co., Chicago, pub
lishers). 1t is called "Wooings and Wed
dings in Many Lands Even the intro
duction is interesting, for the author eX-
presses some pronounced views on mar
riage. She draws a line between the
marriage question and marriage itself
uonable noun indicative of respectable
intimacy between man and woman
whether that intimacy be the avowed
monogamy of England, the sincere polyg-
amy of Turkey or the startling polyandry
Of Ceylon."
The marriage question has no personal
interest for the author: II have nothing
to lose organ by it." she writes, "but
because of my children it interests me
gravely. I have tried to watch wedlock
in many lands and it is my conviction
that these peoples are the happiest who
believe not in the ugly equality, but in
the beautiful inequality of the sexes
She thinks it appalling that chil5ren
are in no way educated for and ABOUT
may congratulate themselves mot upon
our uppermoSt perch upon the animal
ladder, but upon our kinship to the hip
popotamus who feels If he does not see,
the beauty of the --frican jungle because
he shares 1t with his mate"
AS stated, the marriage customs of DIFF
ferent lands are interesting. In Green
land, says the book, the marriage is
riages by violence:
1.-THE Greenland bride-elect whatever
she may be. must appear unwilling and
the bridegroom must gain her by force
IS queen Of queens, and etiquette Is ETH
quette, and appearances must be kept up
The girls relatives seldom interfere on
her behalf, but still less must they seem
glad to part with her Indifference is the
acme of Eskimos good form, even as it
is. the hallmark Of best breeding in the
wigwams Of North America and the man
sions of Belgravia."
All this is true, but not true at all.
There is the greatest diversity of man.
ners, Of customs Of language among the
North folks. Among many EslximoS par
ents betroth their Infant children. The
young people have nothing to do with It,
The old men make the marriage entire
ly. After the betrotha1 is made the cou-
ple~may live together at any time.
In a chapter on the marriage Of
Gretchen the functional significance of
food and drink at betrothals is discuss
ed.
But most peculiar of all these customs
stranger even, think, than the Chinese
ffeasting of the dead is the refusing
by bread or meat or wine of an offer of
marriage. The Spanish girl says mo"
so, Offering her sutton a pumpkin The
old Polish noblesse used to invite an I'M
him dish of significant bird. If I re-
member, it was goose. l know OF no
custom quite analogous to this, though
the goose is an important parsonage al
the marriage of many otherwise dissirni-
lar oriental peoples. The Orientals re-
gard Wild geese as great harbingerS of
marital fidelity-as when one dies its
mate rarely remates. Once a widower,
always a WidoWer with the geese of the
Yellow sea.
Sausages are nowhere more highly re-
puted than in Thuringia. But Gretchen
was careful not to put one on the table
when Hans came accounting, for she in
tended to take Hans, and a sausage or
any part Of a sausage for his supper
would nave meant an unequiVOcal re-
lection of his suit.
Wooings are very much alike in all
parts of the world, although weddings
are not
"A japanese girl is wooed Climate and
flora allowed for) very much as an k;nty
lish or Italian girl is. Her lover suitor
gives her a soft-eyed, dark-eyed look in
which she reads and Is meant to read
"a whole history A bunch of pale vir-
ginal- plum flower buds are thrown rev
erently into her kaga Cor litter as she
enters it to be carried to a friends we'd
ding. She losses the blossoms lightly out
to her kimena's girdle, the sutton Is ac-
ceptable to her. And so the Japanese
youth often learns his fate from o fowery
oracle. as does the German girl. who,
plQcklng out a daisy's petals whispers,
He loves me-he loves me not"
In parts of the islands a youth in love
Will creep at night to a maiden's home
and faSten a spray of blooming ceiastrI1s
alatus above the door. If it is taken IN
or sprinkled, he knows that the maid is
has; If it is left to die or fall, he is re-
jected.
The Japanese wedding is another mat
ter fully described The Norwegian we'd
ding is that in which dancing is most
prominent. The groom dances with his
bachelor friends, and then the bride
dances off her wedding crown.
This is the prettiest bit of all the Nor
WSeglan marriage customs. The bride
blindfold her, then form a ring and dance
around her slowly at first, then faster
and faster. She, after some time, Tits
the crown from her head and places it
can contrive to reach and securely
crown The girl whom the bride succeeds
IN securely crowning steps into the cen
ter of the ring, and all the company
sing, She Will De married next: She viii
De married next" The girls dance en-,
and the crown again changes heads.
II, IN MOROCCO weddings are popular func-
tlons, with an endless amount of formal
lty. The bride is placed in a brides
box carried around by her negress until
the 9Rb time nea for their Grip parting.
her. carries the key to the groom's moth
er, VINO comes and spends few mo-
ments with the bride, Offering her food.
which is fingered, but not eaten.
The mother-in-Iaw carries the kew to
the husband. He bids his guests god
speed and then seeks his wife
What next? I do not know. I know
what the law says, but 1 do not know
now delight, disappointment or embar-
rassment may forget the law. The law
says when he bids her rise she shall fall
az am ms Leet and call him master, that he
snail Their lift her back onto the couch
and give her the food which his mother
mas onered, and that this time she shall
eat it. The lutes wait STILL as the
on the harem housetops Groom and sing
and pray. Two days later the box is
placed upon the roof as sign that the
bride is in, and husband and wife will be
glad to receive their friends.
In this interesting way we are tod thu
customs OF China and Brittany, in Hun
gary, Ceylon. Switzerland, Burmah,
many other lands.
The queerest wooing and quaintest we'd
dings are, in the opinion Of the writer,
those OF the Karens, who live in the
mountains of Burmah and upon the bor-
der of China OF the Oriental wooings
this is said:
I often maintain that Oriental men.
even the peasants, are chivalrous, and 1
am SO often laughed at for my pains
The Dyaks, of Borneo, are chivalrous,
with chivalry susceptible of European
understanding. When a Dyak would woo
hnh Ol9 t6n n f1PI hi aI70