ed. The dress of the bride is little more ornamental than usual, excepting a wreath she wears on her head, above which is a kind of a crown, made of box twigs, having the leaves gilt or silvered; her hair is dressed for the purpose, stiffened and glossed with the whites of eggs. The bridegroom is distinguished by a large white handkerchief, a present from the bride, the corners of which hang down low in the front. Should he, however, have obtained jus primæ noctis before marriage, the ends of the handkerchief must be carefully concealed.

The POLES, in their marriage contracts, do not inquire what a girl's portion is, but how many relations she has; it being the custom of that country for all the relations to give the bride something at her wedding; nor is it looked upon as discreditable among them for the females to. propose a match, which is always done through the medium of relations.

Those men and women, who are godfathers and godmothers to the same children, are looked upon as cousins to each other, and cannot marry together without first obtaining a dispensation.

RUSSIA.

THE Russian women are fair, comely, strong, and well shaped, obedient to their lordly husbands, and patient under discipline; they are even said to be fond of correction, which they consider as an infallible mark of their husband's conjugal affection, and they pout and pine as if they thought themselves treated with disregard and contempt. Of this neglect, however, they have very little cause to complain, the Russian husband being generally disposed both by nature and inebriation to exercise his arbitrary power. Some writers say that on the wedding day the bride presents the bridegroom with a whip of her own making, in token of submission, and with this he fails not to show his authority.

The nuptials ceremonies of the Russians are very singular. When the parents have agreed upon the match, (though the parties perhaps have never seen each other,) the bride is critically examined by a number of women, in order to discover if she has any bodily defect, and, if any, to remedy it if possible. The bride on her wedding day is crowned with a garland of wormwood, implying the bitternes of the married state. When the

priest has tied the nuptials knot at the altar, the clerk or sexton sprinkles on her head a handful of hops, wishing she may be as fruitful as that plant. She is muffled up and led home by a certain number of old women, the priest carrying the cross before, while one of his subalterns, clad in a rough goat skin, prays all the way that she may have as many children as there are hairs on his garment. The new married couple, being seated at table, are presented with bread and salt, whilst a chorus of boys and girls sing the epithalamium, which is always grossly obscene.

This ceremony being performed, the bride and bridegroom are conducted to their own chamber by an old woman, who exhorts the bride to be obedient to her husband, and retires. The bridegroom then desires the bride to pull off one of his buskins, giving her to understand that one of them contains a whip, and the other a jewel or a purse of money. She takes her choice; if she find the purse, she interprets it as a good omen; but, if she find the whip, it is looked upon as an unhappy presage, and she immediately receives a lash as a specimen of what she is to expect. After they have remained two hours together, they are visited by a deputation.

of old women, who come to search for the signs of her virginity; if these be apparent, the young lady ties up her hair, which before her consummation hung in loose tresses over her shoulders, and visits her mother, of whom she demands her marriage portion.

It is generally agreed that the Muscovite husbands are barbarous, even to a proverb; they not only administer severe correction to their wives, but sometimes even torture them to death, without being subject to any punishment for the murder. The canon law of Muscovy forbids the conjugal intercourse on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and whoever transgresses this law must bathe himself before he enters the church porch. He that marries a second wife, the first being alive, is not admitted farther into the church than the door; but if he marry a third, he is excommunicated; so that, though they tolerate bigamy, it is accounted infamous.

If a woman be barren, the husband generally persuades her to retire into a convent; if fair means will not succeed, he is at liberty to whip her into condescension. When the Czar or Emperor has a mind to a wife, the most beautiful

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maidens of the country are presented to him for his choice.

The education of the Czarowitz, or Prince Royal, is entrusted to the care of a few persons, who scrupulously seclude his person from the eyes of the vulgar, until he has attained the fifteenth year of his age; he is then publicly exposed in the market place, that the people, by viewing him attentively, may remember his person, in order to ascertain his identity; for they have more than once been deceived by impostors.

Such is the slavery by which the Muscovites of both sexes are kept by their parents, patrons, and emperor, that they are not allowed to dispute any match that is provided for them by those directors, however disagreeable or odious it may be. Officers of the highest rank in the army, both natives and foreigners, have been wedded with wives by the sovereigns in this arbitrary manner. A great general, some time since deceased, who was a native of Britain, having been pressed by the late Czarina to wed one of her ladies, saved himself from a very agreeable match by pretending that, from the

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