"The usual bridal canopy is in the Synagogue, and they walk round it seven times; then prayers are said, and the glass is broken; Mazzeltov is said, and with songs and clapping of hands the bridal pair is led home again. Near the home a large Bagel is held by a friend, and as the couple cross the threshold it is broken over their heads, and the pieces are distributed among the guests. The bride and bridegroom are then led into a room, and the door is closed for five minutes--I suppose to be sure that they are the right persons, anyhow the bridegroom lifts the bride's veil and gives her the first kiss he has ever given her. (I do not know if she kisses him, for she may be too shy: they will not tell when I ask). "After the five minutes have passed, the bride is led out of the room to a room where the women-guests are assembled, while the bridegroom goes to a room where the men-guests are. The feasting lasts for a few hours in each room. Then the bride is led by some of her women friends to the room where the men are, and the bridegroom takes her by the hand and starts dancing; the other guests follow suit. It is amusing to see the old grey-bearded scholars, who, one would think, could not move their legs, dance and rejoice while the lookers-on clap and sing. It is far more exciting than a wedding in London, for it is considered a 'Mitzvah' to rejoice with a young bridal couple. "The dancing goes on for some time, the only miserable pair, I expect, are the bride and bridegroom, who generally become very weary of it all, for they started their wedding pilgrimage very early in the morning and had fasted till the feasting began late in the afternoon--I often wonder that they have any energy left in them, poor things, for they cannot retire till late at night. "The next day comes the ceremony of cutting off the bride's hair. The bridegroom's mother hands her a few silk handkerchiefs to be worn on her head on special occasions. Sometimes the poor little bride is so young that she cries while her beautiful plaits are being cut off. "At times a quarrel begins between the two mothers: the bride's mother sometimes insisting that her child's hair shall only be cut short and not shaved, and she generally gets her way. "Some brides do not mind being shaved, for they like the idea of wearing the pretty coloured silk handkerchiefs. "At nearly every wedding a table is spread for the poor, and I was present at a wedding when more than a hundred poor men came regularly for eight days, and the table was spread as bountifully for them as for the other guests. Here in Palestine the poor share in the joys of their richer brethren. "When the eight days of Festival are over, the young couple usually settle down close by or in one of their parents' homes, who give them a room. A great deal of the happiness of young couples depends on the character of the mother-in-law, for they have the power of making or marring their happiness more than anyone else.