Comely and kerchief'd, blooming, fresh and fair, All hail and welcome! joy and peace be thine; Of happiness and health a bounteous share Be shower'd upon thee from the hand divine. Wearing the matron's coif, thou seem'st to be Even lovelier now than erst, when fancy-free, Thou in thy beauty's strength did'st steal my heart from me. Though young in years thou 'rt now a wedded wife; O seek His guidance who can guide aright. With aid from Him, the rugged path of life May still be trod with pleasure and delight; For He who made us bids us not forego A single, sinless pleasure in this world of woe. Be open-hearted, but be eident too, Be strong and full of courage, but be staid; Aught like unseemly folly still eschew-- Be faultless wife as thou wast faultless maid! Guard against hasty speech and temper violent, And knowing when to speak, know also to be silent. Guard thy good name and mine from smallest stain; In manner still be kindly, frank, and free; If thou 'rt reviled, revile not thou again; In hour of trial calm and patient be; And when thy cup is full, walk humbly still, A careless, proud, rash step the blissful cup may spill! With this bard's blessing on thy wedded morn, All at thy bridal chamber-door we greet thee; May every joy of truth and goodness born Through all thy life-long journey crowd to meet thee; And may the God of Peace now richly shed A blessing on thy kerchief-cinctured head! The word breid in the original, which we have rendered kerchief and coif, was in the olden times the peculiar head-dress of married females, while virgins wore their braided locks uncovered, a simple ribbon to bind the hair, and occasionally a sprig of heather or modest flower by way of ornament, being the only head-dress that could with propriety be worn by a maiden in the good old anti-chignon days of our grandmothers. The Highland maiden's narrow ribbon for binding the hair was in the south of Scotland called a snood, probably from the old English snod--"neat, handsome"--a word still in use in the English border counties. In the south, even more pointedly than in the north, the emblematical character of the maiden ribbon or snood was recognised. It was only when a maiden became an honest, lawful wife that the coif--also called curch and toy--could be worn with propriety. If a damsel was so unfortunate as to lose pretentions to the name of maiden, without acquiring a right to that of matron, she was neither permitted to wear that emblem of virgin purity, the snood, nor advanced to the graver dignity of the coif or curch. In old Scottish songs there occur many sly allusions to such misfortunes, as in the original words of the popular tune of "Ower the muir amang the heather"--