sions. She gives him such a detailed account of her investigations as only a female and a mother can give. If the report be satisfactory, the next step is to rally for the election of the nominee. A day or two after, the mother of the boy pays a visit to the family of the girl. There she reveals her object. As a matter of course, the mother of "the nominee " is surprised! She dodges "the proposal" by postponing an answer until she consults her husband, who happens to be absent; but she promises to speak to him about it. In returning the visit, the girl's mother bears the answer of her husband. If the proposition be agreeable, the mother manages a meeting of the husbands, in order to arrange the terms of the contract and dower, as well as to fix the time for the marriage.

In case the children have no father or grandfather, the consummation of the contract depends on their guardian. He assumes the same authority in the premises as if he were the father himself.

In the perfection of a marriage contract, and in order to make it valid, care must be taken to avoid the legal prohibitions. They are as follows: A man cannot marry his mother or grandmother, nor his daughter nor their daughters, nor the daughters of his sons and sisters, nor the daughters of these and the daughters of their children, nor his aunts and the sisters of his grandfathers, maternal or paternal. The like classes are prohibited to the women. Consanguinity is attributed where there are valid marriages or the semblance of them. Still, marriage with a natural child is prohibited both to father and mother. Fosterage, which is established by the milk, is another impediment; but it has reference to the quantity of the lacteal fluid, and it must be such as gives increase to the flesh and strength to the bones. According to the "Sheeahs," no effect is attributed to anything less than fifteen acts of suckling, or continued suckling for a day and a night. These fifteen acts must be consecutive from one woman; and if another woman intervenes before the completion of this magic number-like Rip Van Winkle's drink of schnapps, after he swore off-they do not count. The nurse does not become the foster-mother of the child, unless she complete the nursing. She does not obtain the benefactions and gifts which ensue, unless she perfect the work. All these conditions have reference to an infant under two years old.

The milk must be drawn from the breast. Any "deludation,” or tainting of the milk, or any artificial nursing, does not incur prohibition in marrying. The nurse should be of the Mussulman faith, chaste and pure. No infidel is allowed, except under great necessity. She must be restrained from drinking wine or eating pork. It is an old traditionary rule that she must not be a fireworshiper. The children nursed by one woman cannot intermarry. Their fathers and mothers cannot marry any of the children nursed by the same woman who nursed their child. The husband must be of the Mussulman faith; that is to say, a Mussulman can marry a Christian or Jewish woman; but a Muslimah (Mussulman woman) cannot marry with a Christian or Jew. Marriage with fire-worshipers is utterly prohibited. No marriage is permitted with a repudiated woman, unless six months have elapsed since she has been repudiated. A thrice-repudiated woman cannot remarry with her husband, unless she has been intermediately married to another man, and the marriage has been actually consummated. If the man has taken the legal number to wife-i. e., four in number-he cannot contract any new marriage, unless he repudiate one of his wives.

All these impediments being taken into consideration, the contract is signed. The dower is payable, half in advance; the other half remains to be paid to the wife in case of repudiation. This reservation is prudence itself. It enables her to support herself during the time she is forbidden to contract a new marriage.

It is the custom, in most of the places in the Ottoman Empire, that the marriage festivities should last four days. They generally commence on Mondays. Invitations are sent out for the first day, to the high dignitaries of the place; on the second day, to officers of the army and navy, as well as to magistrates; and on the third day, to civil functionaries and to financial folk and tradesmen. The fourth day, the doors are open. All friends and acquaintances may then enter in and tender congratulations. This tender must be made late in the afternoon. The bridegroom is then associated with relatives and friends. The same ceremonial is followed on the part of the bride.

On Monday morning, one or two bands of Turkish music are on hand. A Turkish band is composed of a kind of banjo, some tambourines, and sometimes the clarinet and violin. The men who

play the banjo and tambourine also sing. Games are made and plays performed. Juggling is common. Dancing and gymnastics are not neglected in the fête. As the men and women do not mingle, and as the Turks never dance, professional dancers are engaged. They don a sort of petticoat for the purpose. Sometime gypsy women are hired, who dance after certain methods hardly in vogue in fastidious communities. It is quite proper that only the men are present to enjoy these sensuous diversions. There are buffoons, dwarfs, story-tellers and wrestlers, who contribute to the amusement of the men; for amusement seems to be the sole object of their gathering, in which, however, are not wanting eating and drinking, sherbet and syrups, and then talking loosely after the manner of gregarious men on such assemblages.

Upon occasions of this kind, the wedding parties generally go to some watering-place near the city or town, to spend part of the day. There the wrestlers and other genii perform. Among other amusements, there is a separate party to the bath for both sexes. This takes place on Thursday. The bridegroom goes with his friends, and the bride goes with her friends. It is a singular feature of the wedding, that every amusement at the bridegroom's house is repeated at the bride's house.

On the afternoon of Thursday, the two parties gather under the one roof of the house which is to be the abode of the newlymarried couple. The women meet in the haremlik and the men in the selamlik. Each Turkish house, as has been hinted, is divided into distinct parts, the haremlik and the selamlik. The first is for the women, and the second for the men. Not among the least of the delights upon this occasion, is the display by the bride of her diamonds and other jewelry. The custom is not, as we know, peculiar to the Orient. The presents she receives, her trousseau and toilet, are viewed with the optics of critical and admiring female friends. These are arranged in one or two rooms, so as to display them off in symmetric and lustrous beauty, and so that the guests may felicitate the happy possessors. After having admired the bride herself and the wealth wherewith she is adorned and endowed, and wherewithal she is arrayed-even to the trimmings of her dress and the adornments of her hair-the company themselves begin to share the happiness of the pair.

The writer, being of the ruder sex, has never been admitted

as yet to admire any bride in Turkey, but his own. He is unable to say how the Turkish bride looks or acts in her elegant toilet; but, on veracious hearsay, he undertakes to reproduce something of the graphic and vivacious hilarities and scenes of the "home coming" of the wedded in this Oriental land.

It

Let the reader, therefore, enter in fancy into the haremlik, where the writer cannot go. The room to which the bride is taken is decorated with flowers hung on the walls and on the ceiling. These are intermingled with silk stuffs of bright and variegated color. The divan is covered with a richly embroidered cloth. In one corner there is a special seat for the bride. It has the appearance of a throne. Why not? Is not the bride to be a queen here -until dethroned? Next to this room is the bridal chamber. is shown to the visitors. The bed is magnificently made up with embroidered silk hangings and velvet coverlets, that would make the old home-made quilts of our grandmothers in America "crazy." Every convenience to begin comfortable house-keeping appears. On one side of the couch, are the "night gowns" of the bride and the bridegroom. On the divan, is the morning gown of each. On the table, there are two small vases. They contain Oriental perfumes. These are the usual objects in the Oriental bridal chamber. As to the general furnishing of the bedroom, it depends on the pecuniary and social position of families.

There is a third room shown to visitors, where every convenience and comfort which belong to a house are provided. Here are elegant dresses and toilets, mirrors, table services, linen, tables, chairs, etc., down to the most menial kitchen utensil. The Turks do not make much use of stoves; but there are braziers for warmth by charcoal, called mangals. They are of metal-silver, bronze or copper. They give their shining beauty to the room.

The crowd is immense in the haremlik on Thursday, when the bride makes her entrance into her new home. So great is the throng, that a mistress of ceremonies is a desideratum. She prevents overcrowding, and endeavors to make the guests comfortable. The room in which the bride is to be received is kept free from the mass. The visitors are seated in the surrounding rooms and in their nooks and angles. As there are no men allowed in the haremlik, the women rush in there with absolute freedom. Nearly all of them uncover their faces. Mischief fairly dances in their large black eyes!

Now comes the very acme and the heyday of this unique entertainment! Upon the eventful Thursday and in the forenoon, a long procession of carriages loaded with elegant toilets of Turkish yashmaks and férédjés (i.e. dresses) moves toward the house of the bridegroom. In its midst there is one carriage specially honored. It may not compare with the bridal chariot described in the Bible, whose wood was of cedar, its pillars of silver, its bottom of gold, its covering of purple, and the midst thereof paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem. It may, at least for the poorer class, be only the ordinary araba or wagon, gilded outside and furnished within, with yellow silk, or for the richer such as one may see going from Stambool over the bridge to Péra in a coach of French or German manufacture, with an elegant high-stepping team of bays. But, for rich or poor, there is a favored vehicle, in which, as yet in maiden meditation, sits the central figure of the procession! She is dressed in faultless array; her artist has prepared the eye with a pencil, quite worthy of Meissonnier. Her face is shrouded under a thick veil of gold threads, which float down to her waist. As soon as the procession approaches the house, notice is given to the bridegroom. He hurries to the door of the haremlik, to receive the bride; for, be it known, as to this day of days, the bridegroom is made an exception, and is graciously allowed to enter the sacred precincts where the group of women awaits him. He tenders his arm to the bride. He conducts her through the crowd of women to the throne room. He seats her on the throne. He speaks to her some honeyed words, full of Oriental metaphor and loving ardor. Perhaps he recites a verse from Hafiz, about the love of the bulbul and the rose; or, perhaps, he compares his beloved, after Solomon's ornate style, with all the fragrance of the gardens and the glory of the morning. Perhaps, he calls her a bundle of myrrh, a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of En-ghadi, the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley; or like unto a young hart upon the mountains of spices Perhaps, he tells her that she is as fair as the moon and clear as the sun; or something, if not so grandiose, more appropriate and gentle for the occasion.

In passing amidst the women, he bows low and hangs his head modestly downward. Nevertheless the women affect surprise and indignation at his intrusion within their precinct. They begin a general howling. They cover their faces with fluttering haste;