goodly store of sundry meats, poultry, pudding and _méringues_, to be finally christened--surreptitiously, of course--with rather incongruous affusions of gravy or soup, administered by the mischievous young gentlemen of "the House," for the benefit of Frau Pastorin and her children at home. Sunday and Tuesday are favourite days for a wedding. Thursday is rigorously avoided. For two days the company feast at the bride's house. Taking her to bed on the first night is a peculiar ceremony. The young girls crowd around her in a close circle, and refuse to let her go. The young lads do the same by the bridegroom. When, at last, the two force an exit, they are formally received into similar circles of married men and women severally. The bride is bereft of her _borta_, and receives a _cjepc_, a married woman's cap, in its place. After some more hocuspocus, the two are accompanied severally by the _braska_ and the bride's _slonka_ into the bridal chamber, the bride protesting all the time that she is "not yet her bridegroom's wife." The _braska_ serves as valet to the bridegroom, the _slonka_ undresses the bride. Then the _braska_ formally blesses the marriage-bed, and out walk the two attendants to leave the young folk by themselves. Next morning the bride appears as "wife," looking very demure, in a married woman's garb. On that day the presents are given, amid many jokes--especially when it comes to a cradle, or a baby's bath--from the _braska_ and the _zwada_--the latter a sort of clown specially retained to amuse the bride, who is expected to be terribly sad throughout. The sadder she is at the wedding, the merrier, it is said, will she be in married life. There is any amount of rather rough fun. On the third day, the company adjourn to the house of the bridegroom's parents, where, according to an ancient custom, the bride ought to go at once into the cowhouse, and upset a can of water, "for luck." After that she is made to sit down to a meal, her husband standing by, and waiting upon her. That accomplished, she should carry a portion of meat to the poorest person in the village. A week later, the young couple visit the bride's parents, and have a "young wedding" _en famille_.