rule during the last few centuries is open to grave doubt.
Wooing by Proxy. § 2.—This is common to the Slav, Finno-Ugrian, Turkish, and Mongol peoples. But the incident that the match-makers should not be noticed on their way to the house of the bride-elect is Russian. (See Ralston, p. 265.) The prayers and offerings to the house-gods and to deceased ancestors, made on this occasion, can be paralleled by those made by the Chuvash, Tatars, and Yakuts; the maxim that “silence gives consent” is also found among the Yakuts.
Wooing with Bread.[1] § 2a, 2b, 8.—Here bread is evidently a symbol of maintenance. By leaving a loaf at the house of the girl’s father, the wooer means that he, or he that he represents, will keep and maintain her. An old Russian wooing custom of a similar nature, though more elaborate in its details, is recorded by Jenkinsori, in the year 1557 (Hakluyt, i, 360). In this, a man sends to the object of his affections a chest containing a whip, needles, silk, thread, spears, etc., and sometimes raisins and figs; meaning that if she offends she will be whipped; that she must sew and be industrious; and that if she does well she will have all good things. The running away of the wooer, who is not only safe if he passes a certain boundary in time, but compels his pursuer to agree to his terms, might be explained in the same way as marriage with capture. The wooer was bound to show his adroitness and fleetness, so
- ↑ It will be noticed that bread plays a considerable role in the wedding ceremonies. Wooing is made with it. The bride and bridegroom are both blessed with a loaf, and with a loaf the bride is struck on the head when receiving a new name. But this use is probably borrowed from the Russians, with whom bread is also used as a symbol. At a little Russian wedding, Kohl (op. cit., p. 520) saw a pretty girl, led by a couple of peasant lads, and carrying in her hand a sabre thrust through a loaf. She followed immediately behind the bridegroom. He understood it to mean, obviously, that it was a warning, in the olden time, to the bridegroom that he had undertaken to defend his bride and furnish her with bread.
