we waited in front of the house of the bride's godmother, while the προῖκα or dowry was brought out (Plate V). We then returned and stood in the blazing sun opposite the house door of the bridegroom. The faces of the heavily clad women steamed with perspiration, and the bride must have felt intolerably hot in all her wrappings. First from the roof of the house corn and coins were scattered over the company. The women representatives of the bridegroom then came out, placed a cloth over the head of the bride, and poured corn over her. There is no superstitious value attached to the coins, for which the people present scramble. My informant, on being told that sham coins were used in a neighbouring village, reflected with superior pride that the coins scattered in Hasakeui could be used in the market.
The concluding ceremony followed of the handing over of the articles of the dowry piece by piece to the women representatives of the bridegroom (i.e. mother, sister, and godmother) by the women of the bride. When this was over, the company dispersed to meet again after the midday heat at convivialities which we did not attend, but of which the generosity was warranted by the noisy and somewhat unsteady gait of several of those who passed our house in the evening.
Two points further are of interest. The money προῖκα, to us such an unseemly feature of the marriage arrangements in Greece, was here absent. The προῖκα in Hasákeui was merely a trousseau. It is to be feared that civilisation may introduce the more mercenary system, if one may judge from the analogy of the far more advanced community of Σινασός, a flourishing village near Urgub, about a day's journey away.[1]
The other feature of interest is the severity of the taboos on the bride. For forty days she is obliged to wear the veil. For two or three years she may not speak to her mother-in-law or the male relatives of her husband above the age of childhood. Any conversation which is necessary with her mother-in-law must be carried on indirectly through her sisters-in-law or the children of the house, to whom the words intended to reach the ears of the mother-in-law must be actually addressed. In cases where there
- ↑ See the chapter on marriage customs in Σινασός, an account of the community by the local scholar Ἀρχέλαος.
