The Cheyenne Daily Leader

SOME QUEER MARRIAGE CUSTOMS

The Wife Market of Pence in Brittany.

In Southern Russia

It has just been discovered by the press writers here that a genuine woman market exists in that land of all that is curious and bizarre-Brittany.

It appears that in the remote village of Pence, on a certain day of the year, all the marriageable maidens, dressed in their best, seat themselves on the parapet of a bridge. The young men then file by, chat with the fair ones, ask about their dowry, and when they find the girl of their choice help her descend from the parapet, an action which appears to correspond to throwing the handkerchief in eastern countries.

Meantime the girls' parents have been watching the proceedings. They now come up, and the necessary preliminaries are discussed. Hands are then shaken as a sign that the bargain is concluded, and the legal and religious rites only remain to be gone through with.

This recalls certain quaint French marriage customs. In a village in the canton of Mantes it is considered the proper thing to offer the bride a dish of "bouillon" as she leaves the mayor's office and a spoon perforated with holes. At Richebourg in the same neighborhood a broom is thrown on the ground, as if by accident, before the bride's door. If she picks it up as she comes out it is considered a sign that she will prove a good housekeeper.

In other adjoining communes two young men the day after the marriage take the bride on their shoulders and carry her to the nearest village boundary, where the newly married couple renew their vows, the young wife in addition solemnly promising "never to go to hunt for her husband at the tavern."

Turning from France toward the east, we find the marriage customs yet more picturesque. Thus in the south of Russia many peculiar practices are still in vogue. When the fiance comes to claim his fiancee it is usual to hide her from him with a thick veil.

When the fatal "yes" has been pronounced a cord of white silk is passed around the necks of the newly married and must remain there for several hours.

The groomsmen then offer them a piece of sugar to eat in token of the sweetness that should characterize the marriage relation.

During the wedding breakfast the bride, although seated at the table, is not allowed to partake of any of the dishes-a symbol of the submission she owes her husband. In other localities it is the latter who must be gay on an empty stomach. He, however, is not even permitted to sit down and must wait on his guests.

In some places when the marriage procession is forming one of the young men of the party takes the place of the groom, plays all kinds of tricks in his assumed character, and cannot be displaced until the future husband makes him a present in order to come into his own again.

I am ashamed to add that in certain villages of Little Russia the father lightly chastises the bride with a whip, which he then hands over to the husband. This means that she must be ever ready to yield the latter obedience and not attempt to go counter to his wishes.

My lady readers will note that the above customs are based on very old fashioned and unpopular theories.—Paris Cor. New York Graphic.