other towns, to purchase such household necessities as the ladies may ask them to procure.
Ladies of the family are requested to spare an hour or two each day so as to help in sewing the bride's trousseau, others are commissioned to do work at their homes. They all work by day and by night. In the courtyard, or over a platform round a fountain, one can see them sitting on Persian carpets cutting, sewing, or putting wool and cotton in the bed mattresses. On one side, five or six have a large quilt to sew, and there are cups of green tea by their sides. The young girls are engaged in the less elaborate needlework, others of maturer age, who are greatly skilled, are given the difficult things to do.
While we are at the dowry, it may be of interest to detail the gifts which a mother allots to her daughter. A sum of money, a piece of land, a garden or a house are given in addition to the following articles:—
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(1) Wearing apparel, consisting of three pieces, in white cotton intended for summer use 50 to 100
(2) Wearing apparel, silk (coloured) 5 to 20
(3) Richly decorated apparel (coloured) 5 to 20
(4) Highly embroidered sheets for wrapping the body 5 to 20
(5) Shoe (ordinary) 5 pairs
(6) Decorated shoes 2 pairs
(7) Shawls 5
(8) Fur coat for the bridegroom 1
(9) Linen sheets for the floor 10
(10) Carpets 5
(11) Bed sheets 10
(12) Quilts 5
(13) Crockery No limit
(14) Glassware No limit
(15) Jewellery No limit
(16) Big roller cushions 5
(17) Curtains 5
