In the marriage ceremony, the Chinese bride and bridegroom, after the worship of the tablets, rise to their feet, and remain standing in silence. One of the female attendants takes two goblets from the table, and, having partially filled them with a mixture of wine and honey, she pours part of the contents from one to the other several times ; she then holds one to the month of the groom, the other to the mouth of the bride, who sip a little of the wedding wine, and, continuing to face each other, she then changes the goblets, and the bride sips out of the one the groom had used, the groom out of that of the bride, and this completes the marriage.
With the 'the closing act of the ceremony is • for a female attendant to present to the bridegroom a small linen sheet, which he spreads on the nuptial couch, and on the following morning it is presented to his parents, This rite is adhered to in a modified form by the Jews throughout the world. It lingers among some races professing Christianity. About the year 1862, a trial took place before the Court of Assize at Naples, terminating with the con demnation of Vincenzo and Carolina Garguillo, son and mother, the former to hard labour for life, the latter to seclusion for three years. The (laughter of Carolina, one of the beauties of Sorrento, was married to a sailor called Guiseppe Esposito. The usage of the lower classes of the country, which efforts have been made in vain to suppress, is for the bridegroom to visit his mother in-law on the morning following the marriage, and Esposito was reminded of it. The visit was not, liowever, paid, nor was it after waiting a fortnight. The mother-in-law then becoming furious, complained to her son, urging him to avenge the honour of his sister and of the family. Vincenzo Garguillo thereupon went to his sister's house and waited for the husband, who on his arrival welcomed him, and begged him to stay and dine. The answer was that Vincenzo, drawing a knife and throwing himself on his brother - in - law, stabbed him and laid him dead at his feet: In the Samoan group, the Jewish ceremony customary on such occasions is adhered to.
There are difficulties in the way of the Manchu emperor obtaining a bride. He acknowledges no other king or rank of his own kind, hence there is no prince's daughter who can be asked for his wife. There are princes in China, but they are of the imperial family, and cannot intermarry.
He must take his wife from the people, and she must belong to one of the eight banners. In a recent case there were two empresses, the one was called the Eastern Empress and the .other the Western. When the selection of a bride had to be made, these two ladies issued orders to all the chiefs who had daughters of the desired age to send them to the palace. But families do not like their daughters to become the wife of an emperor, not even to be his empress. A girl is in a sense lost to the family, for she is kept so secluded in the palace that the relatives seldom or never see her, and it brings the parents and family into a position and prominence which is dangerous in a country like China. So parents allege that they are cripple, or deaf, or blind, and in -some cases lameness is imitated, and deform ities are artificially produced. To such an extent had this been carried, that orders, it is said, were issued that blind, lame, and deaf were all to be sent to the palace. Somewhere about 600 or 700 girls appeared on the day fixed, and about 50 or 60 young ladies were selected as a result of the first inspection. Their names were taken, and the character and position of their families were inquired into ; their horoscopes also would be carefully calculated. After this had been done, another inspection was gone through, and 30 were separated from the batch ; these were then kept in the palace, so that their merits and de merits could be more accurately ascertained. After a short stay, the number was reduced to 20, then to 10, and at last became a tie of two ; and thus an empress was selected. At the same time four other wives were chosen, and these were to form the commencement of the imperial haram.
Silver and golden wedding days are almost as much observed by the Chinese as by the Germans. On these festivals children present parents with magnificently embroidered banners, which are hung up in the ancestral hall, a Large room so appropriated in the house of every wealthy man. In this apartment, besides these tokens of filial affection, are kept boards, on which are painted, in gold on a scarlet ground, the names and titles of the families with which the family has inter married. When a woman marries, all the boards from her father's ancestral ball are carried in procession before her.