[Gutenberg 44779] • Strange Teas, Dinners, Weddings and Fetes

This volume was published in 1887. Contents: I. My Tea to Mehemet Ali and Fareedie II. A Japanese Dinner III. A Roman Christmas IV. Sylvester-Abend V. A Coptic Wedding VI. In the Bois de Boulogne VII. An Arab Dinner-Party VIII. A Birthday Party in the West Indies IX. A Siamese Hair-Cutting X. Old English Harvest Customs XI. Easter at Jerusalem XII. The Moqui Snake-Dance ............................................................................................. Excerpts: WHEN I lived in Syria, Midhat Pasha was appointed governor of the Pashalic in which I resided, and came with great pomp and ceremony to assume the duties of his position. His retinue consisted of a great many guards, ser- vants and soldiers, and, as they passed through the street just below my balcony, I looked at them all with a great deal of interest. The Pasha rode a fine bay horse and was dressed in European costume, excepting that he wore a turban instead of a hat. He was short and stout, well bronzed by the sun, and had that air of command which so much distinguishes a soldier if he possesses it. He seemed to be about fifty years of age, although I have heard he was much older. ............................................................................................. CHRISTMAS is as great a day for young Ro- mans as it is for young Americans, and on it they, like other boys and girls, eat too much candy and get more new toys than they know what to do with. But they have one way of keeping it which other children do not have ; and as I was in Rome one Christmas, I will tell you what I saw them do. In the morning, about half-past ten, I went to a church on the Capitol Hill, called Church of the Altar of Heaven. This hill is high and there are one hundred and twenty-four steps leading to the door of the church. It was a dull gray day, and the rain was pouring down so hard that there were little pools and streams all over the old stone steps. But many people were going up. There were men from the country in blue coats and short trousers, and women with bodices and square white head-dresses, who carried the largest um- brellas you have ever seen, blue or green, or pur- ple with bright borders around them. And there were children, more than you could count, some with the country people, others with their nurses, and many who were very ragged, all by them- selves. At the top of the steps men were selling pious pictures and did not seem to mind the rain in the least. Over the doors were red hangings in honor of Christmas. ......................................................................................... SYLVESTER-ABEND is one of the prettiest and brightest of German festivals and is al- most as much enjoyed as Christmas Eve, but I do not know that any one has described it to Ameri- can children. It so happened a few years ago that I was spend- ing the holidays in one of the pleasantest homes in one of the most beautiful towns of South Germany, and there I learned how this. festival was kept. The first of January being in that country St. Sylvester's Day, it is New Year's Eve which is celebrated as Sylvester Eve, or Abend.