Connecticut Western News

Lady Herbert, in a recent English work entitled "Algerie in 1871," gives a description of a Jewish wedding which possesses features new, we imagine, to most of our readers:

We paused in our sight-seeing to go with Madame de C—— and her beautiful daughter to see a Jewish wedding, for which she had kindly obtained us an invitation. We were received in an alcoved room, where a breakfast of sweetmeats, cakes, and sweet wines, was sent out, the bride and her parents being seated on a divan at one end, dressed in rich Jewish costume. After a short time, we were told to precede the young lady to the Moorish vapor-bath, which is the next part of the ceremony. Such a marvellous scene as there met our eye I despair of reproducing on paper! About fifty young Jewish girls, from twelve to twenty years of age, whose only clothing was a scarf of gold or silver gauze around their loins, with their beautiful dark hair all down their backs, and their lovely white necks and arms, covered with necklaces and bracelets, were seen dimly standing in the water through a cloud of steam and incense, waiting for the bride, and when she appeared received her with loud, shrill cries of 'Li! Li! Li!' in a continually-ascending scale. Among these girls were hideous negresses equally scantily clothed, and one or two of them with their black, woolly hair dyed bright orange-color: these were the bathing-women. They seized us by the arm and wanted to force us to undress too, which we stoutly resisted; and took refuge on the raised marble slab which surrounded the bath, and where the pretty little bride, with her mother and aunts, were standing waiting to be unrobed too. They took off her heavy velvet clothes, and she appeared in a beautiful gold figured gauze chemise and some lovely short red-and-gold drawers; they then led her, with the same cries, into an inner room, stifling with wet vapor and steam, and here the poor child, who was only thirteen, remained for three mortal hours, the women pouring water on her head from picturesque-shaped gold jars, and every kind of cosmetic and sweet scent being rubbed upon her. Being unable to stand the intense heat and overpowering smell any longer, we escaped for a time into the open air; but returned after about an hour to find another bride going through the same ceremonies. Some of the bridesmaids were very beautiful; one especially, though a Jewess, had regularly golden hair and blue eyes! And the whole scene was like a ballet at the opera, or rather a set of naiads or water-nymphs in a picture; not like anything in real life! Their glorious hair floating over their shoulders, with their beautifully-modelled arms, rounded in graceful curves as they disported themselves round the bride, would have driven a sculptor or painter wild with delight! But I could not get over the indelicacy of the whole thing; it was a scene in the nude with a vengeance.

"At half-past three o'clock the following morning, we got up and went to the bride's house for the conclusion of the ceremony. A great crowd of men and musicians were grouped in the lower court. Above, the bride was sitting in state, in the deep recess of a handsome Moresque room, veiled in white gauze, while a red-and-gold figured scarf hung in graceful folds behind her head. On either side of her were two venerable-looking old men with long, white beards, and in front of her another, holding a candelabrum with three candles. They were Rabbis, and chanted psalms alternately with songs of praise about 'the dove with the beautiful eyes,' etc; in fact, a sort of canticle. All this time the minstrels in the quadrangle below were 'making a noise,' while over the carved gallery above, looking down upon them, leaned a variety of Jewish women, all beautifully dressed in brown velvet and satin, with stomachers and girdles richly brocaded in gold, and gold-embroidered lappets hanging from the black-silk head-dress which is the invariable costume of their race. This went on for hours, till the poor little bride looked quite worn out. From time to time spoonfuls of soup were put into her mouth, which she strove to resist: and then she was conducted into the court below, where the same ceremonies were gone through, except that a species of buffoon danced before her and was rewarded by ten-franc bits put into his mouth, which he kept in his cheek while drawling out a queer kind of song, which we supposed was witty, as the audience were in fits of laughter. Every thing was done, both up-stairs and down, to make the bride laugh, even to chucking and pulling her under the chin. But she remained impassive, it being part of her business to look grave, and to prove by her demureness that she was old enough to be married. All of a sudden, the same unearthly cry or yell of 'Li! Li! Li!' was heard in the outside court, caught up instantly by every one in and out of the house, I thought of the words, Behold the bridegroom cometh!' so exactly were the old traditions preserved. A very ordinary-looking youth, in a frock coat and red fez, accordingly, made his appearance, and then the women covered their faces with their gauze handkerchiefs, and the men, who never ceased eating and drinking at intervals during the whole night, formed themselves into a procession; while the bride's father (a venerable-looking old Jew, with a long, white beard, white turban, and crimson sash) led her to the carriage which was to take her to the bridegroom's home, we all following, and the women's cry of 'Li! Li! Li! Li!' resounding through the narrow streets.