Col. Macrrnziz on Hindu and Mahommedan Marriage Ceremonies. 183 
the outer door a piece of cloth is spread. There is not any fixed standard 
for the breadth of this cloth, but it must be long enough to reach from the 
door to the bride’s bed, which is placed under a canopy erected in the court. 
The bridegroom is met at the door by the principal attendant and other 
women, who conduct him to the canopy, the women proceed before him 
singing, and the attendant, as she goes on, drops pauns on the cloth, which 
the bridegroom picks up one by one and gives them to the other women. 
In this manner he is conducted step by step to the side of the bed, where 
the attendant puts into his mouth a small piece of candied sugar, and desires 
him to sit down on a chair by the bedside. In the mean time the females 
of the family go into the bride’s apartment; they adorn her with the bridal 
garments and jewels furnished by the bridegroom: when she is completely 
dressed they bring her out and seat her on the bed; but she is so closely 
covered up that no part of her can be seen. They then go through the 
ceremony of the looking-glass and the book. The bridegroom is placed on 
the bed by the side of the bride; one of the women opens a koran, and 
places it, with a large looking-glass, before them, while another, raising the 
bride’s veil, desires them to look at the book ; and the bride and bridegroom 
then see each other’s face for the first time reflected in the glass. This 
ceremony is not practised on all occasions; some people, after placing the 
bride on the bed, and seating the bridegroom on a chair by her side, hold 
a large cloth as a screen between them; they remove and replace the cloth 
seven times, that the parties may have an opportunity of seeing each other ; 
and each time the cloth is replaced the women make offerings in money to 
the bridegroom. These presents are carefully collected, and conveyed with 
the bridegroom when he returns to the assembly of his relations; when the 
father of the bride and his relations make presents of money and other arti- 
cles of value to the bridegroom. When all these ceremonies are concluded 
the bride’s father presents to the bridegroom all kinds of cooking utensils, 
male and female slaves, money, and other things, of which a written account 
is given to him, and the bride is conducted in great state to the house of her 
husband. On their arrival the bridegroom’s father distributes presents 
among his guests and dismisses them, 
The females of the bride’s family, and her relations, make presents to her 
the first time they see her after her marriage. During three days after her 
arrival at her husband’s house she is carefully concealed from the females 
of his family ; she constantly sits in a corner of the room closely veiled and 
