Page 33 - Personal Column (Charles Belgrave)_Neat
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on the roof. In winter-time a room on the ground floor would be used.
                                                                                                                                                       door, which led into the women’s quarters, to a room crowded with
                                                                         The room was quite small; as many people as could get into it sat inside,
                                                                                                                                                       women, where the bride was being exhibited. The bride was dressed in
                                                                         the others sat on the open roof. Wc drank coffee and made the usual
                                                                                                                                                       ail her silks and finery, laden with jewellery, heavy gold bracelets, neck­
                                                                         remarks, wishing happiness to the bridegroom, who was the least con­
                                                                                                                                                       laces, turquoise rings, ear-rings shaped like a young moon with pearls
                                                                         spicuous member of the party and sat silently in a comer even when one
                                                                                                                                                       pendant from them, and elaborate golden head ornaments with little gold
                                                                         of the guests made a ribald remark to him. The atmosphere in the room
                                                                                                                                                       chains set with semi-precious stones, which hung over her forehead. Her
                                                                         was stifling. It was decorated for the occasion with vividly coloured gold-
                                                                                                                                                       hair had been elaborately plaited and was intertwined with roses, jasmine
                                                                         embroidered silks which covered the ceiling like a tent and hung down
                                                                                                                                                       and frangi-pani blossoms, if they are in season, her hands and feet were
                                                                         the walls, entirely blocking the windows. Innumerable large mirrors were
                                                                                                                                                       painted in fine patterns with henna dye, which had taken three days to
                                                                         suspended round the room and coloured glass balls, like those used on
                                                                                                                                                       apply, and her eyes were darkened with kohl. The jewels were part of the
                                                                         Christmas trees, were hung from the ceiling and around the mirrors.            dowry, but in some cases additional jewellery was borrowed from other
                                                                         The lengths of silk which formed part of the bride’s wedding gifts had
                                                                                                                                                        members of the family. She sat silent with her hands folded gazing de­
                                                                         been sent to her by the bridgroom in a wooden chest ornamented with            murely at the floor, bashfulness being particularly emphasized at wed­
                                                                         brass-headed nails. Today a suitcase would be used. The mirrors were           dings, while the older ladies of the family displayed her and her clothes
                                                                         borrowed. Often before a wedding I met processions of black-veiled             and jewels almost as if she were a doll.
                                                                         women on their way to a bride’s house, singing and drumming as they               In the meantime the men guests, myself among them, drank a round
                                                                         walked, each one carrying a large mirror balanced on her head. The             of coffee in the nuptial chamber and then took our leave. After a short
                                                                         floor was thickly covered with Persian carpets, several being laid one on      interval the bride was conveyed there by her women relations, who
                                                                          the top of another, and around the walls there were hard cushions in white    stayed with her until a frantic crescendo of ululating from the dancing
                                                                          cotton covers. The only furniture was a large double bed with carved          women gave warning that the bridegroom was approaching; the women
                                                                          wooden ends and a table draped with a plush cover on which there were         then retired, leaving the bride alone. On entering the room the man gives
                                                                          candles, a vase of tired-looking flowers, pink oleanders, a jug of water      his bride a present, usually a piece of jewellery. He then unveils here and
                                                                          and some glasses. The air in the room was heavy with incense and the          is supposed to sec his bride for the first time, though nowadays it is quite
                                                                          minty scent of ‘mushmoon’, a plant rather like mint which I believe is        possible that he may have seen her before. It used to be the custom among
                                                                          ‘Sweet Basil’, which grows prolifically in Bahrain. The general effect        some people in Bahrain for the bride to be wrapped inside a rolled carpet
                                                                          was a blaze of barbaric colour and a heady atmosphere, quite a suitable       and the carpet containing the girl was propelled into the room where the
                                                                          background for the occasion.                                                  bridegroom was waiting, but this uncomfortable procedure has now gone
                                                                             In an inner courtyard negro women, wearing almost transparent              out of fashion. The singing and the dancing continues for most of the
                                                                          garments, were dancing and singing, unseen but not unheard by the men.        night and there is a good deal of scurrying around, listening and whisper­
                                                                          They sat on the ground swaying from the waist with sensuous move­             ing at the door of the nuptial chamber so that before the couple emerge
                                                                          ments while one of them performed the danse du ventre to the music of         the women of the house are discussing the intimate details of the wedding
                                                                          drums, hand-clapping and lascivious love songs. As they sung they flung       night. When a wedding takes place in a barasti, a palm-branch house^
                                                                          back their long-plaited hair into which were braided strongly scented         even less reticence is observed. The bridegroom" is'supposed to remain
                                                                          flowers of the double jasmine. One ofithem held a smouldering incense-        incarcerated with his wife for three'days and nights, but more often than
                                                                          burner and in the comer there was a fire where the drums were dried to        not he manages to slip out for a little while during this period. On the
                                                                          tighten the stretched skin. The dancers were led by a wrinkled old black      fourth day the couple move to their permanent home which, if they are
                                                                          crone who in spite of her age was incredibly active. Most of the dancing      lucky and comfortably off, may be their own house, though more often it
                                                                          women were the descendants of African slaves who worked as servants           is the bouse of one of the parents, and their normal married life then begins.
                                                                          in the houses of the big families.                                               When a young man wants to marry a girl the affair is negotiated
                                                                             When Marjorie arrived at the house she was shown in by another             through a third person. Old women, who had the entree to many houses,
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