The dress of the gentlemen upon this eventful occasion is similar to that worn by them at their balls: brass chains and rings are rubbed up with chalk in order to restore their pristine brightness; silk stockings, dyed with the flowers of the Hybiscus to the colour of a pigeon’s legs; and shops and stores ransacked, to procure waistcoats and stocks of the brightest dyes. The bride is generally arrayed in white: if they can raise sufficient _cash_, white silk, satin, or figured “challis” is the material; but if the funds are rather _low_, white muslin suffices them. The bonnets are either white satin, or tuscans trimmed with white ribbon, and wreaths of white flowers are fashionably arranged on the left side. Veils are sometimes worn upon these occasions, (to hide their “_blushes_,”) and “parasols and sandals,” and then the lady’s dressed. The morning after the wedding, the “bride’s cake” is sent round to their numerous acquaintance; and then they return to their usual business and their dishabille, until the sound of the “Sabbath bell” bids them open their chests of cedar-wood,[32] and put on their gala-dress. It may be remarked that the greater part of these “_blushing brides_,” these “nervous fine ladies,” have been living several years in a state of concubinage with different persons, and are perhaps the mothers of several children; but still marriage is a state which “calls up all our hopes and fears,” and the black buckras[33] (as these dashing black people are called in this country) think the ceremony would be incomplete did they not shew forth some emotion, or call up from their source some of those “——————————— drops that fall, When the young bride goes from her father’s hall.” We now come to take a view of their burials. I have in a former chapter made some mention of these ceremonies; but still there is a great deal to be said, for be it known, a negro funeral is a matter of no small importance.