ALGERIAN WEDDINGS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 456, 22 March 1890, Page 6

ALGERIAN WEDDINGS.

Ceremonies of Striking Interest to the Foreigner. A marriage celebration in Algeria is an interesting relic of ancient customs. The bridegroom goes to bring the bride, and the guests assembled outside the house will wait for his coming. Soon the sound of pipes is heard coming from the summit of some neighbouring hill, and the marriage procession approaches the bridegroom’s house. The pipers always come first in the procession, then the bride muffled up in a veil, riding a mule led by her lover. Then comes a bevy of gorgeously dressed damsels, sparkling with silver ornaments, after which the friends ol the bride follow. The procession stops in front of f he bridegroom’s hou«e, and the girl’s friends line both sides of the pathway. The pipers march off on one side, while the bridegroom lifts the girl from the mule, and holds her in hip arms. The girl’s friends thereupon throw earth at the bridegroom, when he hurries forward and carries her over the threshold of his house. Those about the door beat him with olive branches, amid much laughter. In the evenings on such occasions the pipers and drummers are called in, and the women dance, two at a time, facing each other ; nor does a couple desist until, panting and exhausted, they step aside to make room for another. The dance has great energy of movement, though the steps are small and the changes of position slight, the dancers only circling round occasionally. But they swing their bodies about with an astonishing energy and suppleness. As leaves flutter before the gale, so do they vibrate to the music ; they shake, they shiver and tremble ; they extend quivering arms, wave veils, and their minds seem lost in the abandon and frenzy of the dance, while the other women looking on encourage by their high, piercing, trilling cries, which add to the noise of the pipes and drums.