A HIDE AND SEEK WEDDING.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 269, 3 January 1929, Page 5

A HIDE AND SEEK WEDDING.

(By E. M. Almedingen) Most wedding feasts are distinguished by dancing and singing, by eating and drinking, but to a Siberian tribe these things are secondary details. The great glory of a wedding is the timehallowed game of hide-and-seek. Should the young man fail to catch his chosen one, the marriage may be postponed—sometimes for a year, sometimes indefinitely. This, however, happens very rarely. In most cases, the bride tries to play into her groom's hands, though he is surrounded by obstacles. The ceremony takes place in the tent of the bride’s people. The tent i s huge, with a wide central room and countless little compartments giving out of it. Sometimes there are as many as thirty odd little cubicles, all separated by loosely hung .eiudeer skins. At the appointed time the guests arrive, and womenfolk are given willow rods for a definite purpose. When the bride and groom come in—to the accompaniment of loud drums—women guests quickly hide themselves behind the reindeer curtains and a signal is given to start the game. Then the fun begins in real earnest. The bride vanishes into the first cubicle and the young man flies ;.fter her. He may run quickly enough, but his trouble is that women guests lie in waiting for him in the darkened cubicles; they pounce on him and belabour his shoulders with their willow rods, while no one hinders the bride in her flight from one compartment to another. Sometimes reindeer skins are flung under the man's feet; he stumbles, fails, picks himself up, and runs on. The game goes ahead—accompanied by drums and deafening shouts—till at last the young, man catches his bride before she has had time to run back to the living room. Together they come out, and the company, expects them to quaff glass after glass of steaming hot tea not quitq am appropriate beverage after a spell of Sixth breathless run ! Bing!, T