r special benefit.

This custom is not unlike our flinging rice for luck at a married couple.

The bridegroom then returns to the men's quarters, where he receives the
hearty congratulations of relatives and friends alike.

From this moment the girl becomes his wife, and the husband has the right
to see her whenever he chooses, but not to cohabit with her until further
ordeals have been gone through.

The husband comes to meet his wife for conversation's sake in a specially
reserved room in the harem, and each time he comes he brings presents of
jewellery or silks or other valuables to ingratiate himself. So that, by
the time the real wedding takes place, they can get to be quite fond of
one another.

There is no special limit of time for the last ceremony to be celebrated.
It is merely suited to the convenience of the parties when all necessary
arrangements are settled, and circumstances permit.

Usually for ten days or less before the wedding procession takes place a
festival is held in the bridegroom's house, when the Mullahs, the
friends, acquaintances, relations and neighbours are invited--fresh
guests being entertained on each night. Music, dancing, and lavish
refreshments are again provided for the guests. The men, of course, are
entertained separately in the men's quarter, and the women have some fun
all to themselves in the harem.

On the very last evening of the festival a grand procession is formed in
order to convey the bride from her house to that of her husband. He, the
husband, waits for her at his residence, where he is busy entertaining
guests.

All the bridegroom's relations, with smart carriages--and, if he is in
some official position, as most Persians of good families are,--with
infantry and cavalry soldiers, bands and a large following of friends and
servants on horseback and on foot proceed to the bride's house.

A special carriage is reserved for the bride and her mother or old lady
relation, and another for the bridesmaids. She is triumphantly brought
back to the bridegroom's house, her relations and friends adding to the
number in the procession.

Guns are fired and fireworks let off along the road and from the bride's
and bridegroom's houses. One good feature of all Persian festivities is
that the poor are never forgotten. So, when the bride is driven along the
streets, a great many sheep and camels are sacrificed before her carriage
to bring the bride luck and to feed with their fl