MARRIAGE CUSTOMS 143 



presents to the bride are brought out for inspection, 

 after which the ceremony is at an end. The aurxt 

 remains with the bride for some three days to settle 

 her into her home and help her with her duties) ; on 

 leaving, presents must be given to the aunt for her 

 kindness and trouble. 



These nocturnal marriages are rapidly becoming a 

 thing of the past, as Christians become more numerous 

 and enlightened ideas gain currency. But the old cere- 

 monies have left their mark on the newer customs, 

 especially in one respect. It is still the correct thing 

 for the bride to walk as slowly and look as sad as she 

 possibly can, and the custom of seclusion for some 

 days after the wedding is still adhered to." 



Mrs. Ethel Braun gives a delightful description of 

 an Arab wedding in her volume of travel in Tripoli ' : 

 " Arab weddings begin on Monday ; that is to say, the 

 first preparation commences on that day, when the 

 bridegroom sends to the house of the bride the canopy 

 under which she will walk in state on the following 

 ^Thursday to his home. Along with this, if he be rich, 

 be sends her a sack full of leaves of the henna plant, 

 so much in use among the Arab women for toilet 

 purposes, also two or three lambs, much oil and grain 

 in fact, everything necessary for the marriage feast 

 for the women, which takes place in the bride's house. 

 Musicians playing the tom-tom and the zummara (pipes) 

 accompany the gifts. Then a quaint ceremony takes 

 place. The bride, covered with a rich silk barracan, 

 and held by two women attendants, who grasp her 

 firmly on either side of the waist, advances stiffly and 

 solemnly, preceded by a third, who walks backwards, 

 1 See Bibliography, 22. 



