Marriage Ceremony, Cairo
Marriage Ceremony, Cairo We have remained in Egypt with the holy family long enough not simply to give representations of the tombs and monuments they saw nearly two thousand years ago, but also to give pictures and descriptions of customs and ceremonies and structures which have grown out of the civilization in the midst of which they spent the time of the flight. The Egyptian girl is generally married in her twelfth or thirteenth, and sometimes as early as her tenth year. Before the wedding, the bride is conducted in gala attire, and with great ceremony to the bath. The procession is called “Zeffet et Hammam.” Musicians with hautboys and drums head the procession. Pairs of married friends and relatives of the bride follow, and after these come a number of young girls. The bride is usually enveloped from head to foot in a cashmere shawl. On the head, she wears a small cap or crown of pasteboard. The procession is followed by another body of musicians. Hideous shrieks of jo...