Note 30 — II.—BIRTH, MARRIAGE AND DEATH.

pretty fairly expresses the bride’s thoughts. If he sits on her skirt, however, the omen is reversed, though from what is known of Chinese brides it may be concluded that they do not often succeed in being the “one” into which the two are made.30 There is a point about the selection of the husband or wife which I may, by the way, notice. In China marriages are forbidden between people of the same family name, even though they are not in any way connected. Now in Yorkshire it is very unlucky to marry a man whose name begins with the same letter as the bride’s.31 May not the two ideas have a common origin?—both being evidently at one time founded on the idea of blood-relationship. That “Matches are made in heaven” is a confirmed belief in China.