In some districts a pretty little piece of acting6 is still kept up on the wedding-morning. The bridegroom, accompanied by his friends, arrives on horseback at full gallop7 before the house of his intended, and roughly calls upon the father to give him his daughter. The old man denies having any daughter; but after some mock wrangling8 he goes into the house and leads out an old toothless hag, who is received with shouts and clamors. Then, after a little more fencing, he goes in again and leads out the true bride dressed in her best clothes, and with his blessing9 gives her over to the bridegroom.[21]
An orthodox Roumanian wedding should last seven days and seven nights, neither less nor more; but as there are many who cannot afford this sacrifice of time, they circumvent10 the difficulty by interrupting the festivities after the first day, and resuming them on the seventh.
The ceremony itself is accomplished11 with much gayety and rejoicing. The parents of the bridegroom go to fetch the bride, in a cart harnessed with four oxen whose horns are wreathed with flower garlands; the village musicians march in front, and the chest containing the trousseau is placed on the cart. One of the bride’s relations carries her dowry tied up in a handkerchief attached to the point of a long pole.
Whoever is invited to a Roumanian wedding is expected to bring not only a cake and a bottle of wine, but also some other gift of less transitory nature—a piece of linen12, an embroidered towel, a handkerchief, or such-like.
In some villages it is customary for the bride, after the wedding-feast, to step over the banqueting-table and upset a bucket of water placed there for the purpose. After this begins the dancing, at which it is usual for each guest to take a turn with the bride, and receive from her a kiss in return for the civility.
An ancient custom, now fast dying out, was the tergul de fete—the maidens’ market—celebrated13 each year at the top of the Gaina mountain, at a height of nearly six thousand feet above the level of the sea, and where all the marriageable girls for miles around used to assemble to be courted on the 29th of June, Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul. The trousseau, packed in a gayly decorated chest, was placed in a cart harnessed with the finest horses or the fattest oxen, and thus the girl and her whole family proceeded to the place of rendezvous14. Sheep, calves15, poultry16, and even beehives, were likewise brought by way of decoration; and many people went the length of borrowing strange cattle or furniture, in order to cut a better figure and lure17 on the suitors—although it was an understood thing that only a part of what was thus displayed really belonged to the maiden’s dowry. The destination being reached, each family having a girl to dispose of erected18 its tent, with the objects grouped around, and seated in front was the head of the family, smoking his pipe and awaiting the suitors.
The young men on their side came also accompanied by their families, bringing part of their property with them, notably19 a broad leather belt well stocked with gold and silver coins.
When an agreement had been effected, then the betrothal20 took place on the spot, with music, dancing, and singing, and it hardly ever happened that a girl returned home unbetrothed from this meeting. But, to say the truth, this was, latterly, only because each girl attending the fair went there virtually betrothed21 to some youth with whom all the preliminaries of courtship had already been gone through, and this was merely the official way of celebrating the betrothal, the Roumanians in these parts believing that good-luck will attend only such couples as are affianced in this manner. Any girl who had not got a bridegroom in spe rarely went there at all, or, if she went, did not take her trousseau, but considered herself as a mere5 spectator.
In former days, however, this assemblage had a real signification, and was, moreover, dictated22 by a real necessity. There were fewer villages, and a far larger proportion than now of the population led the wandering, nomadic23 life of mountain shepherds, cut off from intercourse24 with their fellow-creatures during the greater part of the year, and with no opportunity of making choice of a consort25. The couples thus betrothed on the 29th of June could not be married till the following spring, for immediately after this date the shepherds remove their flocks to higher pasturages, and, proceeding26 southward as the year advances, do not return to that neighborhood till the Feast of St. George.
Another curious custom in connection with the maidens’ market was, that on Holy Saturday each girl who had been betrothed on the preceding 29th of June on the Gaina mountain came to a village of that district called Halmagy, dressed in her best clothes, and there offered a kiss to each respectable person of either sex she happened to meet on her way. The individual thus saluted27 was bound to give a present in return, even were it but a copper28 coin; and to decline or resist the embrace was regarded as the greatest affront29. This custom, known as the kiss market, seems to have originated at the time when all the newly married young shepherdesses used to leave the neighborhood to follow their husbands in their roving life, and this was their mode of bidding farewell to all friends and relations. This custom has now likewise become almost extinct, for the conditions of daily life have been considerably30 modified during the last fifty years, and nowadays the newly married shepherd, after a very brief honeymoon31, goes away alone with his flock, leaving his wife established in the village, even though his absence may extend over a year. Many Roumanian villages are thus virtually inhabited solely32 by women, and to a population of several thousand females we not unfrequently find but twenty or thirty men, and these mostly old and decrepit33, the real lords and masters only appearing from time to time on a short and flying visit. Szeliste, one of the largest Roumanian villages in the neighborhood of Hermanstadt, and celebrated for the good looks of its inhabitants, presents thus, during the greater part of the year, a touching34 array of desolate35 Penelopes; and it is much to be feared that the score of feeble old men left them as guardians36 are altogether insufficient37 to defend the wholesale38 amount of female virtue39 intrusted to their charge.
The Roumanian always regards marriage with a stranger as something opprobrious40. The man who marries other than a Roumanian woman ceases to be a Roumanian in his people’s eyes, and is henceforward regarded as unclean; and a popa whose wife was not a Roumanian would not be accepted by any congregation. Yet more severely41 condemned42 is the woman who marries a stranger; the marriage itself is considered invalid43, and no Roumanians who respect themselves would keep up acquaintance with such a person.
According to their views a girl should remain in her own village, but a man may, without losing caste, marry into another neighborhood. Any father will consider it an honor to take a strange son-in-law into his house, and the greater the distance this latter has come, in the same proportion does the honor increase. But a man who gives his daughter in marriage out of the village loses his prestige in exact proportion as she goes farther away from home. “He has given his daughter away from home” is a reproach to which no man cares to expose himself.
In districts where Roumanians live together with other races professing44 the Greek faith, these marriage laws have been somewhat modified. So unions in the Bukowina with Ruthenians and in the{150} Banat with Serbs, though still regarded as objectionable, are not so rare as they used to be.
No respectable girl should leave her parents’ house unless driven to it by necessity; and if she be obliged to go into service, it should only be in the house of the popa, or in that of some particularly distinguished45 native of the place. The Roumanian girls serving in the towns are mostly such as have been obliged to leave their native village in consequence of a moral slip.
Much has been said about the lightness of behavior characterizing Roumanian girls—Saxons in particular being fond of drawing attention to the comparative statistics of the two races, which show, it is true, a very large balance of legitimate46 births in their own favor. If, however, we look at the matter somewhat more closely, we are forced to acknowledge that the words legitimate and illegitimate can only here be taken in a very modified sense; for while the Saxon peasant marries and divorces with such culpable47 lightness as to render the marriage tie of little real value, the Roumanian has introduced a sort of regularity48 even into his irregular connections which goes far to excuse them. Whatever, also, may be said of the loose conduct of many of the Roumanian married women, the same reproach cannot be applied49 to the girls.
It happens frequently that among the Roumanians, who, like most Southern races, attain50 manhood early, there are many young men who have chosen a partner for life long before the time they are called for military conscription; and as it is here illegal for all such to marry before they have accomplished their three years’ service as soldiers, and no parents could therefore be induced to give them their daughter, a curious sort of elopement takes place. Two or more of the lover’s friends carry off the girl, after a mock resistance on her part, to some other village, where he himself awaits her with his witnesses. These latter receive the reciprocal declaration of the young couple that they wish to be man and wife. The girl is then solemnly invested with a head-kerchief, veil, or comb, whichever happens to be the sign of matronhood in her village; and from that moment she takes rank as a married woman, the lad as her husband, and their children are considered as legitimate as those born in regular wedlock51. Three or four years later, when the young man has served his time as a soldier, the union is formally blessed by the priest in church; but in that case none of the usual marriage festivities take place.
It is very rare that a man deserts the girl to whom he has been wedded52 in this irregular fashion; and in cases where he has been known to do so and take another wife, both he and she are tabooed by the neighbors, and the first wife is regarded as the real one.
As, however, all children originating from such unions are officially classified as illegitimate, the barren figures would give an erroneously unfavorable idea of the Roumanian state of morality to those unacquainted with these details; and it is therefore really no anomaly to say that illegitimate here is tantamount to three-quarters legitimate, while the Saxons’ legitimacy53 does not always quite deserve that name.
A jilted lover will revenge himself on his mistress by ostentatiously dancing with some other lass; and in order to do her some material injury as well, he goes secretly at night and cuts down with a sickle54 the unripe55 hemp56 and flax which were to have served for spinning her wedding-clothes. It is always an understood thing that the hemp belongs to the female members of the family, and there is a certain poetry in the idea of thus cutting off the faithless one’s thread. Thus the father, finding his hemp prematurely57 cut down, is at once aware that something has gone wrong about his daughter’s love-affair.
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1
embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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embroidering
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| v.（在织物上）绣花( embroider的现在分词 )；刺绣；对…加以渲染（或修饰）；给…添枝加叶 | |
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3
requisite
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| adj.需要的，必不可少的；n.必需品 | |
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4
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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6
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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7
gallop
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| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
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8
wrangling
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| v.争吵，争论，口角( wrangle的现在分词 ) | |
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9
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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circumvent
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| vt.环绕，包围；对…用计取胜，智胜 | |
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11
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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12
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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13
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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14
rendezvous
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| n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇 | |
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15
calves
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| n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子，腓；腿肚子( calf的名词复数 )；牛犊；腓；小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 )；（冰川）崩解；生（小牛等），产（犊）；使（冰川）崩解 | |
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16
poultry
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| n.家禽，禽肉 | |
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lure
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| n.吸引人的东西，诱惑物；vt.引诱，吸引 | |
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18
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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19
notably
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| adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地 | |
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20
betrothal
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| n. 婚约, 订婚 | |
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21
betrothed
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| n. 已订婚者 动词betroth的过去式和过去分词 | |
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22
dictated
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| v.大声讲或读( dictate的过去式和过去分词 )；口授；支配；摆布 | |
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23
nomadic
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| adj.流浪的；游牧的 | |
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24
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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25
consort
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| v.相伴；结交 | |
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26
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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27
saluted
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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28
copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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29
affront
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| n./v.侮辱，触怒 | |
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30
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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31
honeymoon
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| n.蜜月（假期）；vi.度蜜月 | |
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32
solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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33
decrepit
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| adj.衰老的，破旧的 | |
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34
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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35
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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36
guardians
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| 监护人( guardian的名词复数 )； 保护者，维护者 | |
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37
insufficient
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| adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的 | |
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38
wholesale
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| n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售 | |
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39
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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40
opprobrious
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| adj.可耻的，辱骂的 | |
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41
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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42
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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43
invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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44
professing
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| 声称( profess的现在分词 )； 宣称； 公开表明； 信奉 | |
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45
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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46
legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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47
culpable
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| adj.有罪的，该受谴责的 | |
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48
regularity
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| n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐 | |
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49
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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50
attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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51
wedlock
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| n.婚姻，已婚状态 | |
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52
wedded
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| adj.正式结婚的；渴望…的，执著于…的v.嫁，娶，（与…）结婚( wed的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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53
legitimacy
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| n.合法，正当 | |
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54
sickle
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| n.镰刀 | |
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55
unripe
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| adj.未成熟的；n.未成熟 | |
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56
hemp
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| n.大麻；纤维 | |
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57
prematurely
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| adv.过早地，贸然地 | |
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