Two or three days before the day of the wedding the guests begin to arrive, and the rejoicing begins. The pipers play at the gate, other musicians entertain the men, and a few women with their small tom-toms amuse the lady guests in the Mahfil of the haram. The day before the marriage is one of great interest and extreme excitement. Supposing the wedding day be the 10th, then, in the early hours of the 9th, all guests rise and have breakfast together; all make haste with it, for there is a function immediately after the breakfast. They are to convey the trousseau from the mother-in-law to the bride.
The procession is formed. A band of tom-tom and pipers leading, the tray carriers are in single file; then follow the head of the Clan, the father-in-law, other elders of the Clan, then the servants, and last of all youths of the family discharging their guns. The procession is made up of men alone, all ladies in the meantime are collecting in the Hall where the presents will be received. The mother of the bride, wearing an old garment, care-worn and overworked, runs about first in this room, then in the next, but knows not as to what she wants.
The trousseau-bearers reach their destination. This procession generally adopts the longest route; it is received amidst cries of "Blessings of Allah," and the like. The head of the Clan opens the occasion with a prayer and declares that it is the desire of the father of the bride's slave that these garments should be worn by the bride at her wedding ceremony. This is, of course, a matter of form, and the mother of the bride says or rather mutters, something—which none but her own ears can hear—to signify that their wishes will be complied with. The party disperses with a closing prayer.
In the meanwhile the poor girl-bride is subjected to very severe beauty treatment. Some elderly ladies massage her face, wash and put oil and perfumes on her hair. The most cruel part of the toilet is the custom of tār zaddani,
