In another case of humble marriage, the bridegroom announced that a ring was not necessary. The woman entreated to have one. The superintendent of the poor took part with the woman and represented how the absence of it would expose her to insult; and he, kindly, hesitated to proceed with the marriage until a ring was produced. The man yielded at last and obtained one. The woman’s gratitude brought tears into her eyes. § 9. In Roman Catholic marriages, with the priest in pontificals, go two clerks in surplices. The latter carry the holy-water pot, the sprinkler, the ritual and a little basin to put the ring in when it is to be blessed.[346] After the pair have clasped hands and the priest has by words joined them together, he makes the sign of the cross upon them; sprinkles them with holy water; blesses the wedding-ring and sprinkles it also with holy water in the form of a cross, after which he gives it to the man, who puts it on the wedding-finger of the woman’s left hand. § 10. The supposed heathen origin of our marriage-ring had well nigh caused the abolition of it during the time of the Commonwealth in England. The facetious author of Hudibras gives us the following chief reasons why the Puritans wished it to be set aside: “Others were for abolishing That tool of matrimony, a ring; With which th’ unsanctify’d bridegroom Is marry’d only to a thumb, (As wise as ringing of a pig That us’d to break up ground and dig,) The bride to nothing but the will, That nulls the after-marriage still.”[347] § 11. The author of the present essay found a difficulty in getting a correct account of the use of the ring in Jewish marriages;[348] although there is an exceedingly learned and interesting decision in relation to one in the English Ecclesiastical Reports.[349] He applied to a professional friend of the Jewish persuasion, who obtained the following interesting particulars from one of our best Hebrew scholars:[350] The nuptial rite among the Jews consists of three distinct acts which together form the regular marriage ceremony. 1st. The religious act _Kidushin_, consecration, by which the husband that is to be _mekadesh_ consecrates--that is to say, sets apart from all other women and inhibits to all other men the woman who, by that act, becomes his wife.