Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-08-30
Some With Rent Rings.

er English, even in the nineteenth
century, used the ring for the church
keys
Some With Rent Rings.
Even yet the poverty stricken Irish
man who cannot buy one rents a ring,
and tradesmen in the smaller towns
make no mean income by keeping
three or four in stock. Long after
the Norman conquest peasants used
circles Of rushes or sedges, and eigh-
teenth century Fleet Street parsons,
ready for any emergency, constantly
carried brass curtain rings in their
pockets. The Puritans forbade the
use OF any ring, as savoring Of pagan
ism.
In the days when the espousal was
IN vogue the girl invariably received
a ring II her lover had the money to
buy It, and this band she wore on the
right hand until at the wedding it
was transferred to her left. II the
future husband was too poor to buy
or rent ring, he gave her kiss
so binding token that the law allow
ed the woman, IL Tilted, to retain half
'of his presents. The common people
even considered 1t sacred, named 1t
the mystic kiss, and declared that It
made the two lives one. After IL CIV
ing Of the ring or the kiss, win, was
generally drunk by the bride and the
bridegroom, and this ceremony,
known as a wet bargain, made the
contract even more binding. Often
times, too at the espousal a silver
coin was blessed and broken and
piece given each partner to be hung
over the heart; and this also took
unto Itself a sacredness and q power
10 drive away trouble and cure dis
ease.
Among the wealthy a French in
Vention called gammal, gimmal, or
geminal ring, constructed with q clasp
SO as to become one band or two, took
the place Of the broken coin, and
when brought together at the we'd
ding by the couple and the witnesses,
who each took a portion at the es.
pousal, was found to be engraved
with rhyme incomplete without ev-
cry small golden band.
Today people invariably put the
ring on the third finger of the left
hand. Why this choice? It has not
always been customary; old pictures
OF the Virgin Mary, such as Raphael's
'Espousal," show the band on the
right. There Is definite reason for
the modern convention. Besides be-
Ing less used and therefore less ex-
posed to dangers, and being the weak
er finger and Therefore symbolizing
the wife's dependence, the third digit
OF the left hand has been supposed,
from the days Of the Egyptians until
this hour, to be connected directly
with the heart by a vein called the
"vena amoris"
The Finger of Life.
tc
resisted disease longest; gout never
attacked 1t until the heart had I've
come affected, and then the pain in
the finger was the death sign; lhe
alchemists believed it the quickest to
given warning Of poison, and they
stirred their potions with
1t. 1t was indeed the finger Of life.
The symbolism of the shoe Is
doubtless older than any existing ma
ton. Ruth's kinsman pulled off his
shoe to indicate that he had resigned
all command over her. Among the
Assyrians and Jews, when bargain
had been made, a man sometimes
gave his sandal as a token Of good
faith. But the wedding shoe Is thought
to be relic Of the ancient times
when the pursuing father hurled mis-
siles at the robber bridegroom.
Among the Anglo-Saxon 1t was GUS
tomary to throw a sandal after the
bridal chariot to show that authority
had been transferred to the husband,
and at the wedding itself the father
often handed the shoe to the BRIDE
groom, who. by way Of reminder, tap
ped his wife's head with 1t. 1t was
then hung over the bridegroom's
pillow in the bridal bed. but some
times, when the bride was known to
have will Of her own practical jok-
ers slipped into the chamber and
transferred 1t to the wife's pillow!
The medieval Germans always threw
the brides slipper from the bedroom
to the guests, and then indeed there
was scrambling, for the person cap
turing 1t would be the next to marry.
Then would the gallants carry it to
the dining room, fill 1t with wine and
drink to the brides eternal prosperity.
Remus Magazine.