The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1902-10-11
NEVER SBE THEIR WIVES.
SOME CURIOUS CUSTOMS PRE-.
VAIL IN DARKEST AFRICA.
1rudery in Ancient Sparta-Circas'
sian Women Make Distant and Icy
Brides-Separated After Their Wed
ding-Wives With Wells.

sian Women Make Distant and Icy
6rides-Separated After Their Wed
ding-Wives With Wells.
Among certain African tribes hus-
bands are not permitted to look upon
their wives. They lie in huts apart.
only during the night are they allowed
to visit their brides This custom,
which prevails in the neighborhood Of
Timbuctoo, is equaled in singularity
by that in vogue in Futa, where wives
never permit their husbands to see
them unveiled until three years have
l elapsed since their marriage.
In ancient Sparta the husband was
| only able to seek the society of his
wife by stealth and under cover Of
| darkness, as seems to be the case
| among the Turkomans of the present
! day, on whom sometimes for the space
| OF two years after marriage. a similar
taboo is laid. Circassian women, al
| though they do not carry prudery to
| this extravagant excess, always live
on the coolest terms with their hus-
bands until they have become mothers.
Among civilized people eccentricity
has been known to afford analogous, if
solitary, examples; as in the case of
the wife of Viennese doctor who,
having on the eve of the day origin
ally fixed for her marriage, been
stricken with smallpox, which COM
pletely destroyed her good looks, be-
came a bride only on condition that
she might ever by day wear thick
veil. This stipulation however, she
herself afterwards rescinded
A curious marriage was few years
since celebrated in the Russian prov
ince Of Simbirsk The bride, who by
withdrawing herself entirely from the
world, had obtained reputation for
great sanctity, bestowed her hand up
on an ascetic of equal fame. The
couple had never previously seen each
had made them one; for after the
ceremony, in which they took part
part blindfolded, they separated, never
to meet again.
Almost as singular was the wedding,
which the bride wore silk handker-
chief wrapped loosely around ner face,
that took place in the sos in church
in a northern district Of London. To
save her parents from ruin she had
consented to marry rich man, whom
she regarded with aversion on the
stipulation that he should never behold
- l,~I 10 Vly{fn
After the ceremony she returned to he-
parents house. which, however, her
husband, through the good offices OF
friends, persuaded her to abandon for
his own.
A widow whose husband had had
the misfortune to be blind, was sought
in second marriage by a well-to-do
citizen of Leeds. She, however, re-
jected his addresses, and on his de-
manding a reason avered that she
could on no account permit him to ex-
ercise a privilege that had not been
enjoyed by her first choice-viz.: that
of looking upon her face. Her lover
fell in with her humor, ard so o.stin-
ate did she prove when his wife that
more than three months elapsed ere
he could induce her to remove the
thick veil under which since her we'd
ding she had hidden her features.
Towards the close of the eighteenth
century there appeared at Brunn. IN
Bohemia, an impc stOr. named Maria
Zoller, who, giving herself out to be
inspired, invariably wore a veil when
among her followers-of whom she
had many-lest, as she pretended, ne
divine effulgence that streamed rom
her countenance should strike them
dead. A number believed in her pre-
tensions, among others rich old farm
er. who went so far as to ask her Land
In marriage.
Loath to forego wealthy husband,
and at the same time unwilling to
confess to a great impOsture. she ad-
vanced ,se fact that he must, as her
husband, sooner or later behold the
splendor of her face. and consequently
nerish miserably. The man, how
ever. as doubtless she intended. still
pressed his suit. and, on her urging
that she dare not have murder on her
deprived himself of sight
that he might qualify for her husband.
Soon afterwards Zoller now that her
ridiculous assumptions were in no
danger of exposure, espoused her "a
tuous wooer, who to the day OF his
death believed that he had been provi-
dentially favored.