MATCH-MAKING IN COUNTY MAYO.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1048, 12 January 1884, Page 4

MATCH-MAKING IN COUNTY MAYO.

[queen.] The Irish peasant is the most prosaic being where marriage is concerned, and the question of romance never enters his head when magog a Watch for hia son or daughter. The subject is simply one of pounds, shillings and pence .tend whether the proposed husband wife has a good ioßtupe.qr not is the essential; part of the iaattefi '/‘As 1 soon- a&.tbo peasant girl is considered by her parents old enough to he married—she is generally over twenty then—they begin to look out for a suitable partner forTiir. Perhaps there are several other daughters, and, as it an unalterable law with tlrdMayb “Celt tbit the younger may not marry until the elder IB provided for, it is necessary that a match should be made for the strong rosycheeked girl who has passed her life in working in her father’s fields before husbands can be found'for her The mother, having ceyplved the question in her mind, Dints to her husband that the time has come to find a bridegroom for Nora. Acting upon this .AUggs.siiaHi.Jl.|. takes a friend into his confidence, and goes the very next market day to the neighboring, town, where he meets the fMher of Vome eligible “boy.” With but few preliminary remarks, he launches forth on the matrimonial subject upon which his thoughts are running, while his Wend enlarges in vague terms on the more delicate'one of the dowry. As £she be made in the i WtrefCwHfaontrtoit |ng parties repair to a where they, noisily argue the the girl’s fortune over their .whisky and water. Very often this fortune ia IAO in caah, a cow, and perhaps a 1 Sometimes the sum of money is more, and well-to do tenants have been known-to give LICO. The whole of this fortune is never i aid down at once, half being given on the wedding-day, and the remainder on the birth of the first child. In sioma cases,, .where.the couple have no ebififmf shifter feud arises between the husband and fatLer-in-law, and long and angry discussions on the subject of payment take place whenever the two meet. To match the girl’s fortune, the “ boy ” must have, some equivalent—a house, or JnSfif ifeies L 6fland ; and the two fathers about and gesticulate, and grow angry and imiaWA in turns while striking the bargain. .Both.want a great deal, and both ®m*e6rtWkvlng to 6 touch. The simple of adding or not adding a pig to the dowry may 1 conclude or break off the negotiation. If, however, everything is satisfactorily settled, the bride’s mother returns to her home, and calling her daughter, who, unaware of her parents’ projects for her future, is perhaps digging .' In some field, bids her pot on her best clothes and come to the town, as her match has just been made. If the is not irt-Ibve with some other man, which is unlikely, as most Mayo girls scorn to marry for “ lowe ” (as they call it), she will cheerfully obey the command. She may, perhaps, be taken a little by surprise At the suddenness of the arrangement, hut she will scarcely be fluttered even if she has been—as I know one girl was—summoned from her-.work to marry a man of whose existence the was ignorant until that moment. As Soon as she reaches the town she goes with her mo her to, the shop, -and is led. at, once to the room when the bridal party are making merry over their whisky. It is the etiquette (and Mayo peasants are as strong about points of etiquette as any Belgravian VHtiSefiCbblifc be) ! ;for her to sit' by the bridegroom’s side and drink with him-; Vo ignorant of what her “ lover 1 ” is like that she often seats herself by the wrong 1 aware of her mistake by the laughter of .the assembled company. - One girl who ■oenuaitted-this error said, in speaking of .It afterwards, “'I knew 11 was to marry W Brennan, and I knew Tom Brennan by mootin' him that ways at dances and wakes, so I hoped it fwas him If was to and I jnst sat by him, and they all cried out, ‘lt’s not Tom, it’s John I’ 1 and I niver havin’ seen John before;" -After a-great deal of noisy mirth, the whole pariy descend tothe shop (which, dike to <A of these kin I of places in stoall Ilewna ih Ireland, is generally half a pubdiodienseAnd half a cloth shop), and the 3|rißagioomi buys a hat dr a shawl for the girL At 5 p.m. the next day the marriage tekesrplao?, and the couplareturn to the bride’s home byAuoh of the neighbors as faave been invited to the eeiddiiqptoast; -The food provided-by the ifaridAs. mother—• wboth ! Mayo - etiquette does not allow.to go to the chapel—is very •implex consisting of * bacon and cabbage, buoasfc gbosef Snd, perhaps, but not often, ifqlef- of motion. 'Tea arid punch ’are Asiided^rodnd; later on in the evening ; and jollity continue for pnom-than half. the night. ’ Husband ana wife?remain- here ! for- a week; at the end of which time a fresh ceremony takes nlamoJ]9iie>lii»*‘ the dragging* home” or bringing thdbridetoher husband’shpuse. ,IA»!sh« arrives at’the door of her hew residence a cake made of oatmeal is broken Aver hep> head, atob she-is then carried atooss tbV threshold.’'; A second wedding least is held,- And the guests dance, eat andodrink Utf >4bims. - At the end of a month the bride may visi;. her old home, hit sbeAbsthot go hear it till the f our Aeekshave fully elapsed. - Strange to say, these loveless marriages,- are! seldom yinhappy, and very few of the comely-white-capped matrons of Mayo are miserable or ill-trmtpd by their husbands - The worst •tWMninjg-Dlock ih the way *o( the bride’s happiness is generally heir mother-in-law, who, no matter how sweet-tempered or. gentle the -girl may bp, will always owe for having married into the family. In fact, I think that theworst mothers-in-law in the Mayo women; and if tjie bride has been uu • fottnnatef ehongh to have been brought by Berhosband in the same house with j mp.yl'the dames, her chance oTpeace and happinassia very slight indeed. * Iknpw of very few couples where the husband is violent or brutal to his Sfift. J rulp,;tlto pairr grow > into an fettaejunent for ..each other, looking upon their jot,qs fate, or,as they express it, •fet!PV<>s God.” It must not be sup-1 there are no love matches mM*yoy,. > |T^e : '.gto«t. time for marrying and giving in marriage is just before Lent, »/««<* fchat JUS ' colleen bawn ’’ -will be sold to some young man who has been “ sending an ac-Wimt’Kas.wife-seeking ia called) to her Biddy or Maureen to In.spch a case j the girl, of course, her, loyer without a fortune ; and the couple spend their honeymoon in the cottage p£ some kind-hearted neighbor, who &iu Vfrentually try to make their parents. On the whole, maraage is.nptat lottery with the into peasants ~’lle steps into it sure that uPt£eL4(J«nd the cow and the pig are thlfewhew'ill prosperous, and that if they arei not,’ well—it ia fate and the wQI of God.