408 
MARRIAGE. 
alternately upon the heads both of the bride and bride¬ 
groom, and a fimilar rite is performed with two rings of 
gold and filver, which are exchanged between them feve- 
ral times; the gold remaining at laft with the hutband. 
Afterwards they are led by the brideman three times 
round the altar, under a fhawl that is held over their 
heads. They mull then drink from the fame goblet of 
•wine, which is prefented to them by the father of the 
bride. When evening approaches, the feftival is renew¬ 
ed, with many of the lame circumftances; and the bride¬ 
groom, having met the proceflion half-way, with all his 
party crowned with flowers, and flourilhing torches in 
the air, or dalhing them upon the ground, condu&s his 
wife to her future abode. When they arrive, the bride 
is fupported by her father and mother, that the may not 
touch the threlhold ; though in fome parts of Greece the 
honour of the huiband obliges her, before the enters it, to 
tread upon a-fieve of leather. Should it not yield to the 
•preflure, no explanation, no riches, no former charac¬ 
ter, will induce him to receive as his wife, one whofe 
previous mifcondufft has been proved by fo infallible a 
teft. 
“ The pifture I have attempted to fketch is the fair 
tinvarniflied defcription of a Greek marriage. In read¬ 
ing it, how many circumftances of former days recur ! 
How much does the whole ceremony remind us of a claf- 
fical age! Catullus, in his Epithalamium, has mentioned 
no event, confident with the change of the religion, 
which does not take place at the wedding of a modern 
Greek. The flammeum itfelf is to be feen among the 
Armenians; who have disfigured, by many abfurd cuf- 
toms, a ceremony originally borrowed from their neigh¬ 
bours. The tears of the bride, the decent coynefs that 
delays her Heps, the Fefcennine licenfe of the noify fong, 
•are all efl'ential to the modern feftival; nor fhould the 
nuts and fruit which are dropped upon her from the win¬ 
dows as the proceeds, be forgotten; a cuftom fuppofed 
■to be ominous of plenty, and never neglefted in the an¬ 
cient ceremony. Catullus himfelf, however, is not fo ac¬ 
curate in his defcription of this ceremony as Homer. 
Upon the fliield of Achilles may yet be traced the mod 
lively features in the cuftoms of his country, and he has 
painted none with more fpirit than the wedding s 
Here facred pomp and genial feaft delight. 
And folemn dance and hymeneal rite: 
Along the ftreet the new-made brides are led. 
With torches flaming to the nuptial bed. 
The youthful dancers in a circle bound 
To the foft flute and cittern’s filver found; 
Through the fair ftreets the matrons in a row 
Stand in their porches, and enjoy the thow. Pope, b. 18. 
As foon as the bride has entered her new habitation, the 
is conducted by the paranympha to the genial couch, 
where the is joined by her hutband, while the reft of the 
party remain in the outer chamber till midnight, dancing 
and raifing the loudeft clamours.” - 
The Romans, as well as the Greeks, difallowed of po¬ 
lygamy ; and they encouraged marriage by the jus trium 
liberorum. A man who had no child was entitled by the 
Roman law only to one-half of any legacy that thould be 
left him, that is, at the inoft, could receive only one-half 
of the teftator’s fortune. A Roman might not marry 
any woman who was not a Roman. Among the Ro¬ 
mans, the kalends, nones, and ides, of every month, were 
deemed unlucky for the celebration of marriage ; as was 
alfo the feaft of the Parentalia, and the whole month of 
May. The moft happy feafon in every re'fpeft: was that 
which followed the ides of June. The Roman laws fpeak 
of fecond marriages in very hard and odious terms : 
“Matre jam fecundis nuptiis funeftata, L. iii. C. de fee. 
nuptiis." By thefe laws it was enafled, that the eftefls 
of the hufband or wife deceafed fhould pafs over to the 
children, if the furvivor fhould marry a fecond time. By 
the Hac ediElali , Cod. de fee. nupt. the furvivor, upon 
marrying a fecond time, could not give the perfon he 
married a portion more than equal to that of each of his 
children. 
As to Chinefe marriages, fee the article China, vol. iv. 
p. 450, 460, 478. and Law, vol. xii. p. 347. 
The Hindoo women, when young, are delicate and 
beautiful 5 fo far as we can reconcile beauty with the 
olive complexion.. They are finely proportioned, their 
limbs fmall, their features foft and regular, and their 
eyes black and languifhing; but the bloom of beauty 
foon decays, and age makes a rapid progrefs before they 
have feen thirty years : this may be accounted for from 
the heat of the climate, and the cuftoms of the country; 
as they often are mothers at twelve years of age, and 
grandmothers at five-and-twenty. Montefquieu juftly 
remarks, “ that women in hot climates are marriageable 
at eight, nine, or ten, years of age ; therefore in thofe 
countries infancy and marriage generally, go together. 
They are old at twenty; their realon therefore never ac¬ 
companies their beauty : when beauty demands the em¬ 
pire, the want of reafon forbids the claim ; when reafon 
is obtained, beauty is no more!” I11 that country, the 
children are contrafted at the diferetion of their parents; 
the girls at three or four, and the boys at fix or eight, 
years of age; the nuptials are very expenfive; occafioned 
by an oftentatious parade, nofturnal proceflions, feafting 
for feveral days, and prefents to the numerous guefts. 
The bride afterwards fees her hufband as a play-fellow ; 
fhe is taught to place her affe&ion on this objedft, and 
never thinks of any other; when about eleven years old, 
file is conduced with fome ceremony to his houfe, and 
commences the duty of a wife, and the miftrefs of a fa¬ 
mily. But, fhould the boy die during that interval, the 
girl muft remain a widow for life, have her head fhaved, 
be divefted of every ornament, and perform many menial 
offices. One delicate attention which moft of the Hin¬ 
doo women voluntarily pay to their hufband, is, that 
when he isabfent from home for any length of time, they 
feldom wear their jewels, or decorate themfelves with or¬ 
naments; fince the object they moft wiflied to pleafe is 
no longer in their prefence. No widow is permitted to 
marry a fecond time; but a man may have a fucceffion of 
wives ; polygamy is allowed by the Hindoo law, though not 
generally praftil'ed,except when thefirft wife proves barren. 
Every Hindoo muft marry into his own cafte; but, among 
the lower claffes at Bombay, this ordinance is evaded. 
And in feveral parts of India, efpecially in Myfore and 
Malabar, the ryots, or cultivators of the land, take as 
many wives as they can maintain ; as the women there 
are extremely ufeful in different branches of hufbandry, 
and are not expenfive to their hufbands. Forbes's Orien¬ 
tal Memoirs. See farther under the article Law, vol. xii. 
p. 341, 2. 
Tlie Turks have three kinds of marriages, and three 
forts of wives : legitimate , wives in kebin, and Jlaves. They 
marry the firft, hire the fecond, and buy the third. We 
think it may be pleafing to the reader to perufe the ac¬ 
count of a marriage-proceffion from old Knolles’s Hiftory 
of the Turks. 
“This yeare (1612) they did celebrate at Conftanti- 
nople a double nuptiall feaft; for the marriages of baffa 
Mehemet, fonne to the deceafed Cecala, with the fultan’s 
filter; and of baffa Mechmet, admirall-at-fea, with the 
eldeft daughter of his emperour. For the feafts of young 
Cecala, the fpahi made courfes on horfebacke with battle- 
axes and barres, in the open place neer vnto the Seraill, 
where they made diu'ers fire-workes of verie great charge, 
but of fmall inuention ; and they gaue prefents to aboue 
20,000 perfons, befides the charge of the banquetting 
ftuffe, which amounted to above 20,000 crownes. The 
pompe was double: for the fultan’s women did celebrate 
that day with the greateft ladies of the Port; and the men 
feparated in other places did folemnize it in like manner; 
But the magnificence of the marriage of the baffa admi¬ 
rall-at-fea with Achmat’s eldeft daughter, had far more 
luftre at the Port. The ceremony was on the 30th of 
June, twenty daies after the other. The day before the 
confummation 
