The marriage feast having been thus concluded, the bride was conducted to the harem by the light of flambeaux, round one of which, pre-eminently denominated the “Hymeneal Torch,” her mother, who was principal among the torch-bearers, twisted her hair-lace,[87] unbound at the moment from her head. On retiring to the nuptial chamber the bride, in obedience to the laws, ate a quince, together with the bridegroom, to signify, we are told, that their first conversation should be full of sweetness and harmony.[88] The guests continued their revels with music, dancing, and song, until far in the night.[89] ----- Footnote 87: Senec. Thebais, Act. iv. 2, 505. Footnote 88: Plut. Conjug. Præcept. i. t. i. p. 321. Meurs. Them. Att. i. 14, p. 39. Petit. Legg. Att. vi. i. p. 449. Footnote 89: See Douglas, Essay on certain points of resemblance between the ancient and modern Greeks, p. 114, and Chandler, Travels, ii. 152. ----- At daybreak on the following morning their friends re-assembled and saluted them with a new epithalamium, exhorting them to descend from their bower to enjoy the beauties of the dawn,[90] which in that warm and genial climate are even in January equal to those of a May morning with us. On appearing in the presence of their congratulators, the wife, as a mark of affection, presented her husband with a rich woollen cloak,[91] in part, at least, the production of her own fair hands. On the same occasion the father of the bride sent a number of costly gifts to the house of his son-in-law, consisting of cups, goblets, or vases of alabaster or gold, beds, couches, candelabra, or boxes for perfumes or cosmetics, combs, jewel-cases, costly sandals, or other articles of use or luxury. And, that so striking an instance of his wealth and generosity might not escape public observation, the whole was conveyed to the bridegroom’s house in great pomp by female slaves, before whom marched a boy clothed in white, and bearing a torch in his hand, accompanied by a youthful basket-bearer habited like a canephora in the sacred processions.[92] Customs in spirit exactly similar still survive among the primitive mountaineers of Wales, where the newly-married couple, in the middle and lower ranks of life, have their houses completely furnished by the free-will offerings, not only of their parents but of their friends. It is, however, incumbent on the recipients to make proof in their turn of equal generosity when any member of the donor’s family ventures on the hazards of housekeeping. ----- Footnote 90: Theocrit, Eidyll. xviii. 9. Footnote 91: Ἀπαυλιστηρία. Poll. iii. 40. Footnote 92: Etymol. Mag. 354. 1. sqq. Suid. v. ἐπαυλία, t. i. p. 964, e. sqq. ----- CHAPTER V. CONDITION OF MARRIED WOMEN.