BOER CUSTOMS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2218, 25 September 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

BOER CUSTOMS.

Among the •' Boers," or peasants ofNorth, Holland, when a young- man is enamoured of a girl, he repairs to the house of her: , .parents a week or two before Easter or Kermis time,, at nine o'clock, exactly, and .generally on a Sunday. If , on entering h,e is offered a chair, he may consider himself a welcome visitor, when the parents withdraw, in order J;hat he, may press his suit., 'If not,' the damsel addresses,him in the following lines: — . " Zicje waar hetyuui] ,gaat ■ , Danweetje waar <ie dour staal" „, the blunt meaning of which is that he Jhad better make at straight, for the ,doorias t the frames go up th^ chimney. ,In former » times it was the. custom for { the bride's trousseau to contrin her ( shroud ,and cap, , and in -some districts it, was the practice for newly married" cpulea " to, , provide themselves with several elm planks; from which, at the close, of , life, their coffins ' were ' made. These , were' considered as' indispensable portions of the household furniture, and were known as the *> huiskold plmJcbn. 1 " i Among the primitive folk who m&kft these curious additions to their ante 7 marital, gear, the door of the house in i which the bride lives is painted green, and \y,heu the wedding 1 day arrives flowers and evergreens are strewn, in iront of it as the young people, attended t by their friends , and relation^, ; proceed to the Stadhus. On their ,return, after singing, lively- /songs, a .large ,silver bowl, used, only 'at, birth and, marriage .festivities,, filled with' brandy and raisins is produced and circulated \aniong, the guests, after which a substantial mpal is eaten, one of the invariable 'dishes- being gray peas mixed .with raisins, (laud ( Iaud ip the singing and dancing which; follows, one song, 11 Hoczoct is't waar etc priendschap tooont" — "How sjveet ,it ,is, ,where friendship! dwells" is never .omitted. ,In Drenthe the wedding guests are, or were, bidden by two .bachelors, called f\broednci<gcrt." who carried wdrids , gaily decorated, with 'ribbbnsj and on arriving at each | house repeated a , number , of . doggerel verses, the burden of which was usually the bill of fare at' the coming feast. | Among other curious m'atrimonal regulations which at one. time prevailed m Holland,' no citizen .was permitted to marry o\it of his native town, except on payment of a heavy fine, though it is perhaps needless adding, a great many couples managed to evade this ingenious sumptuary law.