s
of a wedding; and when the circumstances of the groom permitted, the
occasion was marked with gayety, music, feasting, and festivities of
all sorts. The morning after the wedding, the husband, before they
arose, presented to his wife the _morgen gift_. This was a valuable
consideration, and corresponded to the modern marriage settlement.
The terms of the settlement were arranged before the marriage, but
the gift was not actually presented until the marriage had been
consummated.

The rude conduct which accompanies a wedding in rough communities
at the present day, as well as the more innocent but embarrassing
pranks to which any newly wedded couple may be subjected, find their
counterpart in the uncouth conduct and witticisms that were at one
time a part of the experiences of an Anglo-Saxon bride and groom. As
the bride, accompanied by her friends, was conducted to her future
home, where her husband, according to custom, awaited her, the
procession was sometimes saluted by facetious youths with volleys
of filth and refuse of any sort, the especial target of their
maliciousness being the frightened and insulted bride herself. If
the young rowdies could succeed in spoiling her costume, they were
especially satisfied with themselves. Aside from the indignity offered
her, the loss of her costume was always a serious matter to the bride,
as in that time of scanty wardrobes it represented a large part of her
_trousseau_.

The bridegroom, if such indignities were offered to his spouse,
invariably sallied forth with his friends to administer condign
punishment to the "jokers"; and as all freemen in those days carried
arms, bloodshed, bruises, and broken bones resulted. Later, the law
took cognizance of the outrage and suppressed it. But such unpleasant
experiences were not permitted to spoil the marriage festivities;
the bride received the felicitations of her friends and displayed
her gifts--the latter being in evidence at all weddings, because the
making of gifts on the part of relatives was not a thing of choice,
but of compulsion.

Among the convivial Anglo-Saxons the marriage would have been
considered a very tame affair without the accompanying excesses of
unrestrained feasting, drinking, and mirth. The clergyman who had
pronounced the benediction at the nuptials came to the feast with a
company of his clerical friends. The wedding feast lasted for at least
three days, and was a time of gluttony and rioting. On the