The use of torches at weddings is very ancient. At Rome the practice was that two children should lead the bride, and a third carry before her a torch of white thorn. The Greeks used also a nuptial torch, which was carried by the bride's mother. Lamps and flambeaux are used at Japanese weddings, and torches are still used at Turkish marriages. Knives formerly formed part of the accoutrements of a bride. This is easily accounted for by the fact that anciently it formed part of the dress for women to wear a knife sheathed and suspended from their girdles. A bride says to her jealous husband, in Dekker's _Match me in London_, 1631: "See at my girdle hang my wedding knives! With those despatch me." The use of bridesmaids at weddings is of remote antiquity. Amongst the Anglo-Saxons the bride was led to the Church by a matron, who was called the bride's woman, and followed by a company of young girls who were called bridesmaids. It was at one time the custom for the bridesmaids to lead the bridegroom to Church, and for the bridegroom's men to conduct the bride. This is clearly alluded to in the _Collier's Wedding_: "Two lusty lads, well drest and strong, Step'd out to lead the bride along: And two young maids of equal size, As soon the bridegroom's hands surprise." The bridegroom's men were anciently called Bride Knights, which was an appropriate name at the period when they actually fulfilled that office. Bride cake is of ancient origin: it is a relic of the Roman period, when the marriage ceremony consisted principally of the contracting parties partaking of a cake made of flour, salt, and water, in the presence of the Pontifex Maximus, or High Priest, and ten witnesses. The form of the cake has varied in different ages. Ben Jonson refers to it in the _Tale of a Tub_, iii., 8: "The maids and her half-valentine have ply'd her, With courtise of the Bride cake and the bowl, As she is laid awhile." As feasting was connected with nearly all religious ceremonies, and as each feast speedily appropriated its particular article of food, the bride cake became inseparably associated with the bridal feast. Anciently, small cakes were made for weddings, and distributed amongst the guests; the ingredients of these doubtless changed from age to age, but there is little doubt the cake was always a sweet one which, in the early days, would be sweetened with honey with spices in it, and, after their introduction, currants. In the seventeenth century it was usual for the bride and bridegroom to kiss over the cake, and many are the superstitions connected with it. It was formerly the custom for the brides to go to church with their hair hanging loose behind. Anne Boleyn's was thus dishevelled when she went to the altar with Henry VIII. Webster refers to this practice in _The White Devil_: "And let them dangle loose as a bride's hair."