One or two points call for notice in this version as they occur elsewhere, (1) the use of the word "controlled" for "cajoled ''; (2) the abbreviation of the dialogue, and, in this instance, the omission of the mercenary spirit, and finally the inelegant couplet at the finish. In a version from Auchencairn, Kirkcudbrightshire, collected by my elder daughter, the "lord" has become a gypsy," and when the mother tells the gypsy to "choose the fairest one you see," the latter chooses a girl and asks her to come. She replies" No," and turns right round away from the wooer; as she is turning the gypsy says: 66 "The naughty girl she would not come out, She would not come out, to help me in my dancing." The second time she is asked she must say " Yes." Then the successful wooer sings: "Now we have got the flower of May, The flower of May, to help us in our dancing." The two girls take hold of each other's hands and sing: Though often dropped out, the buying element is an essential one; I have an Irish variant which emphasises this incident. Let her be young or let her be old, It 's for her beauty she must be sold." A French version, that was presented before the Liverpool Teachers' Guild by Mrs. J. G. Frazer, marks a transition to a higher stage of culture. Tous. LE CHEVALIER DU GUET. "Qu'est-c'qui passe ici si tard, Le Chevalier. "C'est le chevalier du guet, Tous. Compagnons de la Marjolaine, "Que demand, le chevalier, Le Chevalier. "Une fille à marier, Tous. Compagnons,' &c. "N'y a pas de fille à marier, Le Chevalier. "On m'a dit qu' vous en aviez, Tous. Compagnons,' &c. "Ceux qu' l'on dit s'sont trompés, Compagnons,' &c. Le Chevalier. "Je veux que vous m'en donniez, Le Chevalier. "Les minuits sont bien sonnés, Tous. Compagnons,' &c. "Mais nos filles sont couchées, Le Chevalier. "En est-il un' d'éveillée, Tous. Compagnons,' &c. "Qu'est-ce que vous lui donnerez, Le Chevalier. "De l'or, des bijoux assez, 66.6 Tous. Compagnons,' etc. Elle n'est pas intéressée Le Chevalier. "Mon cœur je lui donnerait, Tous. Compagnons,' &c. "En ce cas-là, choisissez, Compagnons de la Marjolaine,' &c." We have similar games in our own country, in which the damsel will no longer permit herself to be sold, and only yields to her wooer when he offers her his heart. The union of husband and wife is indicated in various ways by many peoples. In some parts of India the contracting parties tie themselves or are tied together. Among that very primitive people, the Veddahs of Ceylon, who, according to the Sarasins, never tell a lie and never steal, the bride ties a thin cord of her own twisting round the bridegroom's waist, and they are then husband and wife. The man always wears this string, and nothing would induce him to part with it, for it is emblematic of the marriage tie, and, "as he never parts with it, so he clings to his wife through life." In many parts of India bride and bridegroom are for the same reason marked with one another's blood, and Colonel Dalton believes this to be the origin of the custom now so common of marking with red-lead. The former of 1 ' J. Bailey, An Account of the Wild Tribes of the Veddahs of Ceylon," Trans. Ethnol. Soc. (N.S.), ii., 1863, p. 293. these customs survives in our wedding-ring, but unfortunately we have not in the British Islands the pretty continental custom of the exchange of rings, and the wearing of his ring by the husband. I do not recall a reminiscence of the blood custom in folk-practice or folk-song in our 'own country. Among the Australian Narrinyeri a woman is supposed to signify her consent to the marriage by carrying fire to her husband's hut and making his fire for him. In Croatia the bridegroom boxes the bride's ears, in order to indicate that henceforth he is her master. And in ancient Russia, as a part of the marriage ceremony, the father took a new whip, and, after striking his daughter gently with it, told her that he did so for the last time, and then presented the whip to the bridegroom. Marriage ceremonies arose by degrees and in various ways. When the mode of contracting a marriage altered, the earlier mode, from having been a reality, survived as a ceremony. Thus, as we have seen, the custom of capture was transformed into a mere symbol after purchase was introduced as the legal form of contracting a marriage. In other instances the custom of purchase has survived as a ceremony after it has ceased to be a reality. According as marriage was recognised as a matter of some importance, the entering into it came, like many other significant events in human life, to be celebrated with certain ceremonies. Very commonly it is accompanied by a wedding feast. The marriage ceremony often indicates in some way the new relation into which the man and woman enter to each other, most frequently the living together, or the wife's subjection to her husband. Among the Navajos the cere mony merely consisted in eating maize-pudding from the same platter; and among the Santals of India, says Colonel Dalton," the social meal that the boy and girl eat together is the most important part of the ceremony, as by the act the girl ceases to belong to her father's tribe, and becomes a member of her husband's family. Eating together is, in the Malay Archipelago, the chief and most wide-spread marriage ceremony. The same custom occurs among the Hovas of Madagascar, the Hindus, Esthonians, and in Ermland, in Prussia.' In many parts of the British Islands children dance in a ring, and sing to a rhyme, in which the following very frequently occurs: "He courted [Aggie Wilson] before he was a man ; He hugged her, he juggled her, he took her on his knee, "[Aggie] made pudding so nice and so sweet, And [Willie] got his knife and cut it round so neat, Another Irish version runs: "[Annie] made a pudding, She made it very sweet; She dare n't put a knife in it Till [George] came home at neet. 'Taste, [George,] taste, and don't say nay! Perhaps to-morrow morning 'll be our wedding day.'" Our bought wedding-cake is an unsentimental survival of this pretty custom. 1E. T. Dalton, Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, Calcutta, 1872, p. 216. The foregoing remarks are abbreviated from Westermarck's History of Human Marriage, p. 148. 'Proc. Belfast Nat. Field Club (2), iv., P. 82. |