Although the wedding ring for a long time was invariably of gold, fashions in recent years have been changing. Our grandmothers were proud to wear a plain wide band. After the First World War, when gold gravitated toward Fort Knox, the bands grew narrower and platinum wedding rings were introduced. The gold itself, instead of a plain band, might be drawn as though the ring were fashioned of strands, or hammered into tiny bars with corners around the circle, in various modernistic patterns. The practice also began of using diamonds in wedding rings; never one large brilliant, outthrust like the happy engagement solitaire, but a row of smaller stones inset, almost flush with the band. Today the plain wide wedding band is circling back into favor, along with the olden practice of putting a ring on the finger not only of the bride but of the groom. It is a mutual compact. In ancient times, much more elaborate rings were used for the ceremony, sometimes so large that immediately after the wedding they were put aside, replaced by smaller rings, and put on again only at the burial day. Among the Jews the ring might have an adornment in the shape of a tower, and be inscribed with the Hebrew words for Good luck, Mazul-tov. _Less Solemn Marriage Rings_ Among the country folk in late medieval times, marriage was sometimes a quickly arranged affair, and rush rings were often used for rushed marriages. The rush ring weddings, at which a “hedge-priest” officiated, were intended neither to be legal nor to endure. Some more coarsely cynical ceremonies were actually held with the assistance of the town butcher, with the bride and groom standing on opposite sides of a side of beef, being joined together with the traditional words, “till death do us part.” Among more playful frolics was the practice of the bachelors among the Renaissance Italians, and the Italianate Englishmen, of wearing an engagement ring on the hat or in the ear, so as to invite and incite the maidens. In England, the rings were more often confined to the hand, and a language of the fingers developed. A ring on the first (little) finger indicated that the man was seeking a wife; on the second (which we now call the third finger) that he had found her; on the third, that the knot had been tied; and on the fourth, that he had every intention of remaining a bachelor. Similarly, for the woman: first finger, not keeping company; second finger, engaged; third, married; and fourth, intending to die a maid. It will be noted that in this system the wedding ring did not appear on what is now the usual finger. And indeed it was only gradually that what we now call the third finger of the left hand became the permanent choice for the bond of matrimony. Those who must have reasons have found three for this choice.