242 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



conducted by the go-between, who is the sole medmm of com- 

 munication between the two families. When all details have 

 been settled, a sum of money is carried from the parents of the 

 groom to those of the bride, and the betrothal is completed. This 

 pact can under no circumstances be legally broken by either party. 

 Even the discovery of fraud on the jDart of the agent does not 

 vitiate the contract. 



When the bride knows that she is to be married, she must 

 evince by word and manner the deej^est melancholy, and she gains 

 commendation and repute if her lamentations are poetical. An 

 acquaintance of mine, who was spoken of with approval, always, 

 from the time of her betrothal to that of her marriage, referred 

 to the latter as to her funeral. To her little brother — the only 

 member of a bride's family that may before the birth of her first 

 child visit her in her husband's house — she said, " When I am 

 buried, you must come frequently to burn incense at my grave." 

 To her elder brothers and to her sister-in-law she said, " After I 

 am dead, do not kill the lizards and the centipeds that may crawl 

 about the house, for it may be that my spirit will come back and 

 dwell in the vermin about my home rather than abide in the 

 grave into which I shall have been put." A gifted girl makes 

 many such allusions without instruction, while the stupid have 

 to be privately taught what to say when they wail their adieus to 

 maiden life. How much of a girl's distress is real and how much of 

 it is piously feigned can be guessed only by those who understand 

 how deeply Chinese character is affected by Chinese customs. 



The vexations of a betrothal and a wedding are so great as to 

 have given rise to the proverb, " Don't say you have had trouble 

 until you shall have married off a daughter or brought home a 

 daughter-in-law." The sum of money paid to the bride's par- 

 ents is usually spent upon her marriage outfit. The smallest 

 dowry is a few suits of new clothing. The wealthy give hun- 

 dreds of garments, and sometimes one or two bondmaids, with a 

 field that reverts to the bride's family upon her decease. 



In this, the Swatow region, the bride is always carried from 

 her father's house to that of her father-in-law in a sedan-chair 

 that is carefully closed and covered with scarlet. She is accom- 

 X^anied by none of her own family. The go-betweens and a mes- 

 senger from the house of the groom direct the bearers who carry 

 her trousseau with her in a procession along the streets. 



Early on the morning of the wedding, the bride is bathed in 

 water in which twelve kinds of flowers have been steeped ; has 

 her hair stiffened with bandoline and wrought into a marvelous 

 coiffure with many golden aigrettes; is attired in gorgeous 

 apparel, which she puts on with an appearance of bitter unwill- 

 ingness, and enters the red sedan-chair weeping loudly. The 



