During the magnificent prosperity of Israel, marriage ceremonies were conducted with more pomp than they had been in the days of the patriarchs. Instead of the bridegroom’s paying a certain sum of money, or performing a certain period of service for his bride, it became customary for wealthy parents to give a handsome dowry with their daughters. This is the natural tendency of society; because with the progress of wealth and refinement women become expensive, rather than profitable, in a pecuniary point of view. On the day of the nuptials, the bride was conducted by her female relations to the bath, where she was anointed with the choicest perfumes, her hair perfumed and braided, her eyebrows deepened with black powder, and the tips of her fingers tinged with rose-color. Her companions then arrayed her in a marriage robe of brilliant color, which fell in ample folds to her feet. The girdle and bracelets were more or less costly, according to the wealth of her parents. A flame-colored veil was surmounted by a crown, usually of gold; for this reason, a bride among the Hebrews was called _the crowned_. Before she left the bath, her friends from all quarters sent in their wedding gifts. The bridegroom was anointed and crowned in a similar manner, by the young men of his family. The bride, accompanied by her nurse, was conveyed in a litter from her father’s house, followed by all her female friends and relations closely veiled. The procession was headed by seventy young priests bearing flambeaux of oil and pitch, and by a multitude of persons carrying the clothes, jewels, and furniture, which had been presented to the bride; each person carried but one thing. Next came the bridegroom and his friends, in their richest apparel. Then came the bride in her palanquin: and servants and children closed the train.