AMONG THE TBANSYLVANIAN SAXONS. 109 



only accompany the bridal pair to church the elder members of 

 both families remaining at home until the third invitation has been 

 delivered. Then all together proceed to the house of the bride, where 

 the first day's festivities are held. There is much speechifying and 

 drinking of healths, and various meals are served up at intervals of 

 three and four hours' distance, each guest being provided with a cov- 

 ered jug, which must be always kept replenished with wine. It is 

 usual for each guest to bring a small gift or contribution to the newly- 

 set-up household of the young couple, and these are deposited on a 

 table spread for the purpose in the center of the court-yard ; or, if the 

 weather be unfavorable, inside the house, bride and bridegroom stand- 

 ing on either side to receive the gifts. First it is the bridegroom's 

 father who, approaching the decorated table, deposits thereon a new 

 shining plowshare, as symbol that his son must earn his bread by the 

 sweat of his brow ; then the mother advances with a new pillow, 

 adorned with bows of colored ribbon, and silver head-pins stuck at the 

 four corners. These gay adornments are meant to represent the pleas- 

 ures and joys of the married state ; but two long streamers of black 

 ribbon, which hang down to the ground on either side, are placed 

 there likewise, to remind the young couple of the crosses and misfor- 

 tunes which must inevitably fall to their share. The other relations 

 of the bridegroom follow in due precedence, each with a gift in his 

 hands. Sometimes a piece of home-made linen, a colored handker- 

 chief, or some other article of dress or decoration ; sometimes a roll 

 of sheet-iron, a pair of scissors, thread and needles, a packet of nails, 

 or a farming or gardening implement, each one laying down his or her 

 offering with the words, " May it be pleasing to you." Then follow 

 the kinsfolk of the bride with similar gifts ; her father presenting her 

 with a copper caldron or a kettle, the mother with a second pillow, 

 decorated in the same manner as the first one. Playful allusions are 

 not unfrequently concealed in these gifts a doll's cradle, or a young 

 puppy-dog wrapped in swaddling-clothes, often figuring among the 

 presents ranged on the table. 



Various games and dances fill up the pauses between the meals ; 

 songs and speeches, often of a somewhat coarse and cynical nature, 

 being a part of the usual programme. Among the games enacted at 

 some of the Saxon peasant-weddings there is one which deserves to 

 be mentioned, affording as it does a curious proof of the tenacity of 

 old pagan rites and customs, transmitted by verbal tradition from one 

 generation to the other. This is the JRossel Tanz, or dance of the 

 horses, evidently founded on an ancient Scandinavian legend to be 

 found in Snorri's " Edda." In this tale, the gods Thor and Loki came 

 to a peasant's house in a carriage drawn by two goats or rams, and 

 asked for a night's lodging. Thor killed the two rams, and with the 

 peasant and his family consumed their flesh for supper. The bones 

 were then ordered to be thrown in a heap onto the hides of the ani- 



