Note 16 — II.—BIRTH, MARRIAGE AND DEATH.

The superstitions regarding marriage are as plentiful in China as we should expect to find them amongst a people in which its ceremonies are held in such extreme honour. Of the outward symbols of the married state there is, as we all know, a great importance attaching to the wedding ring. Now it is very certain that the Chinese did not take the idea of wearing wedding rings from us. Yet we find that in certain parts of China, and in Java, the custom of sending the “measure of the finger-ring” previous to marriage is well known. Turning to Chinese annals we find the preparing of a “united-hearts’ finger-ring” mentioned amongst the preliminary ceremonies to marriage. More than that, just as the purchase of the ring is considered by us as having morally bound the intended bridegroom, so in parts of China it affixes legal responsibility upon him; a failure to carry out the marriage then subjecting him to the penalties of breach of promise of marriage.16 Bearing in mind the symbolic nature of a ring in the western world—that of something without end—it is interesting to find a value attached to it out here similar to that we ourselves endow it with at home. In Durham, for instance, the breaking of the wedding ring forbodes death, and its loss, the loss also of the husband’s affection. Not less interesting is it to find that, while our north-country good-wives throw a plateful of shortcake over a newly-made bride as she returns to her future home,17 the Chinese go through the same ceremony with rice, which is a sign of abundance.18 As regards the lucky day for marrying, the Chinese have numerous portents. The first, sixth, and tenth of the month are laid down in the Imperial almanacks19 as the most suitable, but marriages of course take place on almost all days except those specially noted as “uncanny.”