A WEDDING FEAST IN WESTERN INDIA.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3233, 10 November 1881, Page 4

A WEDDING FEAST IN WESTERN INDIA.

The mothers, as becomes their age and the importance which naturally attaches to them on such an occasion, are generally silent, and when they speak they do so in very measured tones. It is by no means to be inferred that they are quite contented and pleased ; far from that. The bridegroom's mother is dissatisfied because her boy, who is the emblem of perfection in her eyes, has not got a fitting necklace, a golden ring, or a shawl from his father-in-law. She, however, manages to preserve silence, though, of course, when she is obliged to speak she never fails to drop a syllable or two indicative of her displeasure The bride's mother is more Bubdued in her demeanour, and though not satisfied to her heart's content, because some ornament is still wanting to her girl, she is generally very solicitous to gain the good wishes of her apparently implacable coadjutor ; she is therefore not very talkative. The sisters of the married couple give full license to their tongues. The relatives of the boy, while dinner is going on, boisterously find fault with everything that belongs to the girl. Every little imperfection is carefully marked out and made the the subject of a cutting comment. Even the eatables do not escape their close scrutiny. One shrewd girl pronounced the sweot balls to be too sweet; another remarks that inferior sugar is employed,while a third finds fault with the butter, or anything on which she can exercise her wit. These fair critics, however, take good care to stuff themselves with the dainties they censure. When dinner is half over, and the claims of hunger are satisfied, the parties amuse themselves with short riddles in verse, in bantering one another, and in expressing bitter remarks. Young and lovely women on these occasions muster all their intellectual strength in the battle of agreeable raillery. Not only the young people, but the mothers, if not very old, are made the objects of these attacks. Every person takes care to represent that the bride or bridegroom to whom she belongs is a paragon of beauty, the perfection of grace and virtue, while the partner selected is far below comparison. It is creditable to both parties that the language used towards the bride and bridegroom is always respectful. But this deference is seldom shown to their relations. The pride of the all-important mothers is commented upon in the midst of a roar of laughter, and the vanity of the blustering brothers and sisters is cleverly ridiculed Such a dinner lasts two or three hours, and the guests generally rise satisfied with themselves and with everybody around them. The perfect good humour which prevails throughout in a party composed apparently of such semihostile elements would be incomprehensible to a foreigner not acquainted with native dinners of this description.—Life in Jndia, by Mra Q-utbrie,