Part 10

THE VEIL--BRIDESMAIDS AND BRIBERY--OLD SHOES--ORANGE BLOSSOM

Weddings are ceremonies in connection with which we may look for some points of interest, as customs in connection with them change but slowly. In this country, if convention be followed, the bride's dress is of white.

The veil that is worn recalls the primitive head-dress that was bound by a fillet, and, like that of the nun, may well be derived from the wimple, though it is said to represent the canopy which in many countries, and by the Jews in our own, is held over, or erected above, the bride and bridegroom. Flowers take a part in the adornment of the bride, and the special use of orange blossom will be dealt with when discussing wedding crowns.

It is customary for the bridesmaids to be dressed alike, and they often wear some ornament which has been presented to them by the bridegroom. It may be that this is a survival like many other wedding customs of the old marriage by capture, for in some countries the girl friends of the bride will not allow her to be approached by the bridegroom until he has given them presents, or in reality bribed them. Now, like tipping, it is merely a custom that must be followed, but originally no doubt the bridegroom and his accomplice, the best man, might have found that what they could not do by force they might encompass by bribery.

The expression "to tie the nuptial knot" takes its origin from the fact that, among the Babylonians, the priest who conducted the wedding used to take a thread from the garment of the bride and another from that of the bridegroom. These he tied together into a knot and presented to the bride as a symbol of the binding nature of the union between her and her husband.

There is an article of dress which often plays a part at weddings, for old shoes are usually thrown after the newly-married pair, while boots, with a hole in them, filled with rice, are hung from the backs of carriages, and satin slippers have on occasion been fastened to the carriage door handle of the railway train which speeds the pair on their honeymoon.

We all know that the throwing of old slippers is intended to bring luck to the bride and bridegroom, but it is not apparent what particular form it is intended that the blessing should take, and the origin of the custom is difficult to determine. Mr. James E. Crombie,[24] after carefully considering the various superstitions connected with weddings and shoes, has come to the conclusion that the intention is to ensure that the young couple shall be blessed with children, and that old shoes are thrown because of the idea that the essence or life of the individual that wore them remains in them, and makes them powerful talismans.

In this connection it may be well to consider the importance which shoes have assumed at various times in connection with weddings and otherwise. So long ago as the year 1291, a law in Hamburg ordered that the bridegroom should give his bride a pair of shoes, and it is still a custom in Transylvania for the bridegroom to make a similar present on his wedding morning. In Greece the best man puts a new pair of boots, supplied by the bridegroom, on to the feet of the bride when she leaves her father's house. In Bulgaria, a money present which the bridegroom makes to the relatives of the bride is called shoe money, and with it the father of the family buys shoes for it. This money is said to be a relic of the price that was paid to the clan from which a wife was taken.

Shoes have figured as part of wages, and they were thrown over the heads of the O'Neils by the O'Cahans when the former were chosen chiefs. This was done to symbolize the superiority of the throwers. In Russia, the wives as part of the wedding festivities remove their husband's boots in order to show their subjection to him, though while the bride dutifully takes off her lord and master's boots as a sign of subserviency, she always hits him on the head with one of them to show that she is not one whit inferior to him. It is said that the Hebrew word for shoe and wife are identical, and a Bedouin form of divorce is "She is my slipper, I have cast her off." The casting of a shoe over land, as mentioned in the Bible, was symbolical of conquering it.

As regards fruitfulness, the Eskimo women carry a piece of an old shoe which has once been worn by European sailors, to make them prolific mothers. Women who are blessed with families in China present shoes to the "Mother goddess," and those who wish for children borrow these shoes and vow that if the desired result is effected they will present another one to the divinity when the borrowed shoe is returned.

Mr. Crombie gives a number of instances to show that there is still a belief that the soul of persons may live in their shoes. In the Museum of Northern Antiquities at Copenhagen is a mummified corpse of a woman who was intentionally drowned in a bog, and from her body, after the murder, a shoe had been removed. During the Arran murder case at Edinburgh, in 1889, it transpired that the boots of the murdered man had been removed by the local constable, who had buried them on the seashore between high and low water marks. No explanation was forthcoming, though the man admitted that it was by the orders of his senior officer that he put them out of sight. There is no doubt but that the idea underlying the action was that of preventing the ghost of the murdered man from walking.

It must not be forgotten that shoes used to be thrown after anybody when he or she was starting on a journey, which in old days was a risky business, and Ben Jonson wrote, "Would I had Kemp's shoes to throw after you." This has been interpreted as meaning that Kemp was a lucky individual, and that something of him and his good fortune remained in his shoes. Summing up his remarks, Mr. Crombie says with regard to throwing shoes at weddings that by doing so "we should be doing for the young couple, in a more pleasant way, exactly the same as the relatives of the Galla bride did for her when they anointed her from top to toe with bullock's blood. We should be doing for them with shoes what our Aryan ancestors did for their cattle with the sacred parna rod, and what the herdsmen of Sweden and The Mark do to this day, when on the 1st of May they watch on which branch of the mountain ash the sun first strikes, and then, cutting it down, beat the yearling heifers with it on the loins and haunches, repeating at each stroke a verse in which they pray that as sap comes into the birch so may milk fill the cow's udder. We should be doing with shoes what the Romans did in ancient Rome at the festival of the Lupercalia, when the boys, armed with strips of the skin of the slaughtered goats, used to rush through the city striking all they met, and where women, particularly those who desired to be made fruitful, placed themselves naked in the way, and received the blows of the Luperci on their palms."

At a wedding sometimes the priest's vestments play a part. It is customary in some continental countries for the priest to wrap the hands of the bride and bridegroom in his stole, and even in some of our English churches the contracting parties are instructed to take hold of the stole by the officiating clergyman. We might mention that in many countries the bridal dresses are very beautiful, and are often survivals of very old-fashioned costumes. The Norwegian bridal dress is an instance of this. The wearing of a bridal crown is also a custom in Scandinavia, where it is said that every parish possesses its special crown which is the property of the church, but the use of it is only sanctioned when the bride bears an irreproachable character.

The wearing of orange blossom has apparently the same meaning, and it may be mentioned that on funeral monuments or brasses the wearing of a garland by the effigy of a girl means that she died a virgin.

XIX

MOURNING

COLOURS ASSOCIATED WITH MOURNING--WIDOWS' WEEDS--PERENNIAL MOURNING

The ceremonies connected with death and burial are no exception to the rule which we have laid down, that on solemn and important occasions primitive customs and costumes are most commonly to be met with. The making of clothes from bark has come to have a special significance in the case of races which no longer adopt this in everyday life. The Kayans of Borneo now ordinarily wear smart foreign stuffs which they get from traders; but when they go into mourning they discard these garments, and return once more to the old native garment of bark cloth. The putting on of sackcloth is no doubt a similar custom, and dishevelling of locks is also in keeping with it.

Among the many curious customs connected with funeral rites which survive in civilized countries, the adoption of some kind of mourning dress is very general. Sombre black has come to be associated in our minds with mourning, but other colours are used among other nations, and even in this country. The drapery with which the hats of the hired mourners at a child's funeral are veiled are white instead of black. White ostrich feathers may appear on the horses' heads, and white adorns their trappings. Royalty is still privileged to have a special mourning colour--purple is used at state funerals, and grey is looked upon as half-mourning.

In China white is the colour used instead of black, and other Oriental nations wear yellow. In modern Egypt, at a funeral, the women, whether relatives or servants of the deceased, are distinguished by a strip of linen or muslin bound round the head and tied in a single knot behind. This stuff is usually of a blue colour. The women of ancient Egypt, as shown on the walls of tombs, wore a similar bandage round their head. Excessive mourning is now becoming a thing of the past, and there is no need now for such laws as were made at the end of the fifteenth century to restrict extravagance in mourning attire. Nowadays men may follow the custom observed by those in the army and those who wear Highland dress of putting a black band round their arm. At the most they wear black clothes and put a wider band round their hats. Among women it is only widows who wear a special costume. It is not a becoming one, though sometimes a smartness is imparted to it that is a little out of keeping with the idea of mourning. Now a widow's dress is called weeds, though this term at one time signified the whole of any woman's costume.

For the origin of the widow's veil we must go back to mediæval times, when the dress of widow ladies was similar to that of the convent. It was the custom of elderly ladies whose husbands had died to become what is called vowesses, and to go into seclusion. A relic perhaps of the practice is to be found in the kind of prejudice which still exists in the minds of some people against second marriages. The white cuffs of the widow recall those of the nurse, and similar ones are used by some members of the legal profession as part of their mourning.

When dealing with military costume we shall find that signs of mourning, when once adopted, have in some cases never been wholly abandoned. There are similar vestiges like those found in the dress of public schools, and there has been a suggestion of the same thing happening in the Navy.

In connection with the hired mourners or mutes at funerals, now so solemnly habited in black, it may be interesting to recall that the old Roman mimes, of whom we have seen that Punch was originally one, were employed at funerals to imitate the language and manners of the deceased.

XX

COSTUME CONNECTED WITH THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

THE SURPLICE AND "THE CLOTH"--THE CIVIL ORIGIN OF VESTMENTS--SPECIAL VESTMENTS--PROCESSIONAL VESTMENTS, SO CALLED--NUNS' DRESS--THE CHOKER

The dress worn by clergy when conducting religious ceremonies offers many opportunities for studying the development of garments, and illustrates at the same time how the dress used by a special class may evolve more slowly and on different lines from the same clothes that may be worn by the people at large. The case is similar to that of animals or plants which are isolated from the other members of their species, and in course of time come to differ very markedly from their far-away relatives who flourish in the old home.

We shall see that many of the ecclesiastical vestments can be traced to civil dress; but for the moment we may discuss those which are in use at the present time, and which afford additional evidence in support of our statement that the more important the ceremonial, the more ancient the costume. At the present day we find that the clergy of the Church of England preach either in a white surplice or in a black gown. We can trace the black gown to an order made by James I, but at the present day the vestments worn by the clergy of the Presbyterian Churches are rather professional, or academical like a barrister's gown, than properly ecclesiastical. We have already mentioned the bands (see p. 44) which are worn with the black gown, and here we might mention that when the preacher ministers to a recognized congregation he wears them, though if he is ordained but is conducting an occasional service he does not.

Charles I gave instructions that the surplice should be worn, and had an Act passed giving him power to regulate clerical costume. But the clergy sent in a petition that matters should be left as they were, and this request seems to have been granted, as some of the ministers at the time expressed the fear that His Majesty would order them to wear hoods and bells. Mr. Macalister[25] says that the surplice was originally invented to take the place of the albe, which was made so small that it was difficult to put it over the cassock when the latter garment was thick and lined with fur.

Originally the surplice was put on over the head, in the same way as the albe, the place of which it took, but some two hundred years ago the surplice was made open in front and fastened at the neck with a button. The reason for this is that in this way the surplice could be put on without disarranging the enormous wigs which were worn during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The cassock, to which we have already alluded, was a long, loose coat or gown, which was worn by both sexes from the eleventh century onwards. The name was applied to the coat adopted by foot soldiers in the time of Elizabeth. In the case of the laity, it was abandoned in favour of the shorter and more convenient coat.

The black coat of the modern clergy, whom we term "the cloth," no doubt represents it, while it is of course worn ordinarily by many Roman Catholic clergy, and some High Churchmen, as an everyday garment, for which it was originally intended. The row of buttons which now fasten the long cassocks from neck to the foot have been humorously compared by Lord Grimthorpe to the close row of rivets on a boiler.

With regard to the development of the more ornamental dress of the clergy there is a great deal to be said. In the past, two separate origins for it have been suggested, and to pursue either of these would be to take us far back into history. It has been claimed, in the first place, that modern church vestments have been derived from those of the Levitical priesthood. The other idea is that the ceremonial dress of the clergy was derived from the civil costume of the Romans. It appears, however, that careful researches have shown that the decorations which have given ecclesiastical vestments their highly ornamented character--in which they resemble certainly those used by the Jews in Temple worship--have been gradually acquired.

The dress of the ancient Christians was simple, and it seems likely that owing to the poverty of the early Church rich clothing could hardly have been adopted. Besides, for many centuries there is no mention of such vestments as we are considering, and no records as to their having been derived from Jewish models. On the other hand, everything points to a more natural origin of the raiment concerned. Flowing garments, as we have already seen, give dignity, and we find that among the Romans such were used in dignified leisure or on occasions of state, in contradistinction to the dress of active existence, which consisted of a short tunic or chiton. It is with the first kind of dress that we have to deal.

It consisted of a tunic either short or long, over which was worn the toga which was capable of the same variety of arrangement as the plaid which still survives. Even when the toga was given up by the people generally, on the founding of the Roman Empire, it continued to be used in certain cases.

It was etiquette to wear a toga when dining with the Emperor or going to court; advocates wore it, as did clients when they visited their patrons, and it was also adopted at funerals and when sacrifices were being made.

On the face of it, it would appear likely that those who ministered to the early Christian Church would follow the general custom. Nothing, perhaps, affords better evidence of this having taken place than an illustration which is considered authentic of St. Gregory the Great with his father and mother. As Mr. Marriott[26] points out, if it were not for the Papal pallium--that is to say, the band round his shoulders--on which crosses are embroidered, and the book of the Gospels which he holds in his hand, it would be hard to distinguish which was the bishop and which the senator. (See Figure 128.)

From this dress it is claimed, by those who have carefully gone into the question, that ecclesiastical vestments have been developed. In connection with this, Mr. Macalister[27] makes the following remarks: "Fashion in dress or ornaments is subject to constant changes, which, though perhaps individually trifling, in time amount to complete revolutions; but the devotees of any religion, true or false, are by nature conservative of its doctrines or observances. At first the early Christians wore the same costume both at worship and at home. Fashion," Mr. Macalister continues, "would slowly change unchecked from year to year, while ecclesiastical conservatism would retard such changes as far as they concern the dress worn at divine service; small differences would spring into existence between everyday dress and the dress of the worshipper. These differences, at first hardly perceptible, would increase as the process went on, until the two styles of costume became sharply distinguished from one another." In this connection it will be interesting to mention those vestments which antiquarians have traced to Roman costume.

The albe takes its name from the _tunica alba_, which was used as a purely secular garment until the ninth century. It was worn by all the ministers and deacons, but as the latter had no vestment above the albe, it came to be the special characteristic of the deacons. Usually, as the name implies, the albe was white, but in this country coloured albes were sometimes used.

We have already seen that the surplice was derived from the albe, and Mr. Marriott has brought forward all the evidence that he can to show that white was the colour of the vestments at the earliest times in the history of the Church. His arguments, however, do not seem to be conclusive, and his inferences do not commend themselves to Mr. Macalister. The latter thinks, however, that the view that white was the colour appropriated in primitive times to the dress of the Christian ministry is preferable to the theory that the early vestments were of the same elaborate description as their mediæval successors. He is of opinion, nevertheless, that the passages upon which Mr. Marriott bases his arguments are quite consistent with a third alternative, namely, that no distinctive vestments were set apart for the exclusive use of the Christian minister during the first four centuries of the Christian era.

The dalmatic was a wide gown or tunic with long full sleeves, which was derived apparently from the albe and used by persons in high secular positions before it was adopted by the Church. In the mediæval period the dalmatic was slit for a short distance up either side and fringes were added to decorate the slits, the hems, and the ends of the sleeves. In this style the garment was worn by a bishop. There were, however, only fringes on the left sleeves and along the left side in the form of this vestment which was appropriated to a deacon.

Most elaborate explanations were offered by mediæval writers for this difference, which seems merely to be a matter of convenience for the deacon, who served at the altar. It was important that he should have his right side free, and the heavy fringes would have got into his way. One of the ideas with regard to the fringe was that the absence from the right side symbolizes our freedom from care in the world to come; but why, Mr. Macalister asks, was not the bishop to be exempt from care in the future world? In connection with the coronation of English sovereigns the dalmatic is still used, as well as representatives of other ecclesiastical vestments, but to these we shall refer again.

It is not at all unlikely that the stole which a clergyman wears after the fashion of an untied tie, and which hangs from his neck nearly to the ground, is really the same thing as our handkerchief, and it is certain that it was employed originally as a scarf or _orarium_. In many Roman monuments which are not of an ecclesiastical character, scarves are worn over the rest of the dress. They pass over the left shoulder, diagonally, towards the right side, and are fastened under the right arm. They are not to be confounded with the two bands of purple (or _clavi_) which on the tunics of senators and other important men ran round the sides of the neck openings and down to the lower hem.

It is probable that the scarves were used in the same way as favours and "colours" among ourselves. It is recorded that Aurelian was the first emperor who distributed "oraria" as presents to the people to be worn as favours. In this connection we must not forget the ribbons of the Knightly Orders, which we have already mentioned when speaking of the baldric.

The Fourth Council of Toledo enacted that deacons should wear their stoles over their left shoulder so that their right arm might be free to facilitate the execution of their duties in divine service. An English church vestment actually goes by the name of the scarf, and is a broad black band of silk worn in the same way as the stole. It is probably a modification of some article of university costume, possibly the tippet (see p. 212), and is worn by Doctors of Divinity and the clerical authorities of Collegiate and Cathedral bodies.

The outdoor garment which replaced the toga took several forms. One of these had already been in use for some time as part of the dress of the lower classes and of slaves. Speaking briefly, it rose in the world, and emperors even wore it when they were travelling. One form, called the casula, is of interest to us because it is the forerunner of the chasuble.

So much attention has been drawn to ecclesiastical vestments of recent years, owing to the adoption by English High Church clergy of those in which Roman Catholic priests celebrate Mass, that it may be perhaps of interest, even at the risk of recapitulation, to consider them. It should be said at the outset that the stripes of embroidery, which are often very elaborate and enriched with jewels, which appear on vestments such as the amice and albe, are called apparels.