not obliged to purchase the woman he marries, but, on the
contrary, receives a portion with her equal to her condition. It is on
the famous shield of Achilles that Homer has described a marriage
procession--

Here sacred pomp and genial feast delight,
And solemn dance and hymeneal rite.
Along the streets the new made bride is led,
With torches flaming to the nuptial bed;
The youthful dancers in a circle bound
To the saft lute and cittern's silver sound,
Through the fair streets the matrons in a row,
Stand in their porches, and enjoy the show.

POPE.

The same pomp, procession, and music, are still in use. Dancers,
musicians, and singers, who chant the Epithalamium, go before the bride;
loaded with ornaments, her eyes downcast, and herself sustained by
women, or two near relations, she walks extremely slow. Formerly the
bride wore a red or yellow veil. The Arminians do so still; this was to
hide the blush of modesty, the embarrassment, and the tears of the young
virgin. The bright torch of Hymen is not forgotten among the modern
Greeks. It is carried before the new married couple into the nuptial
chamber, where it burns till it is consumed, and it would be an ill omen
were it by any accident extinguished, wherefore it is watched with as
much care as of old was the sacred fire of the vestals. Arrived at the
church, the bride and bridegroom each wear a crown, which, during the
ceremony, the priest changes, by giving the crown of the bridegroom to
the bride, and that of the bride to the bridegroom, which custom is also
derived from the ancients.

I must not forget an essential ceremony which the Greeks have preserved,
which is the cup of wine given to the bridegroom as a token of adoption;
it was the symbol of contract and alliance. The bride drank from the
same cup, which afterwards passed round to the relations and guests.
They dance and sing all night, but the companions of the bride are
excluded--they feast among themselves in separate apartments, far from
the tumult of the nuptials. The modern Greeks, like the ancient, on the
nuptial day, decorate their doors with green branches and garlands of
flowers.

W.G.C.

* * * * *

THE KING'S COCK CROWER.

Among the customs which formerly prevailed in this country during the
season of Lent, was the following:--An officer denominated the King's
Cock Crower, crowed the hour each night, within the precincts of the