244 SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY 



people were invited to this part of the ceremony. It 

 took place in the evening. The avenue was brilliantly 

 lit up with coloured lamps, and the house a long two- 

 storied front, with marble steps the whole way along 

 was a blaze of coloured lights. It looked like a palace 

 of jewels. Little boys and girls in gold garments, or 

 so they looked, met the guests on the steps and separated 

 them, the ladies going first to one end of the house to 

 pay their respects to the hostess and the bride, and the 

 men to the great hall where the ceremony took place. 

 Ramsay delighted to recall the look of the room, with 

 its mixture of brilliant colouring and the picturesque 

 figures that might have stepped from the pages of the 

 Arabian Nights. 



The vows were taken by the bridegroom and his father- 

 in-law representing the bride. They sat together on 

 a couch, and held up their right hands, touching each 

 other but covered by a sacred handkerchief. After this 

 came the signing of the register, in which Ramsay was 

 a witness. Then the English lady guests and a few of 

 the nearest relations proceeded to the large room in the 

 part of the house occupied by the women, with the bride- 

 groom, who with the bride sat on a sofa and formally 

 accepted the presents from their respective relations- 

 " in-law." These were mostly precious stones and heavy 

 gold embroideries and were brought in on trays by 

 servants even more gorgeously attired than the guests. 

 After seeing a few trayfuls presented and bowed over by 

 the newly-married pair, the friends who had brought the 



