“’While I was staying at my betrothed’s home, we never spoke to each other, except to say Good-morning and Good-night.  Sometimes when no one saw us we looked at one another, for already I liked my young man, though he was not handsome.  A wise girl does not want good looks in a husband so much as that he should be a good Talmudist and be a good character; this he is, and I could listen to him for ever,’ she said, blushing like a rose; ’when he sings Zmires, his voice is like a nightingale, and even in the mornings, when he thinks I am asleep, it is just lovely to hear his sing-song as he studies—­it is to me the sweetest of all music,’ she said.

“‘So it should be, my child,’ said our old lady, ’and it is a privilege for us women to help them to study.’

“‘So my mother says,’ said Hulda, naturally.

“At the same time I thought to myself:  ’A nice thing it would be if only our men were to study and our women to work, as they mostly do here and in Russian ghetto towns.  No,’ I thought, ’I would rather that the men did some manual labour as well as study, and the women have some time for study as well as for household work.’

“But I kept these thoughts to myself, while Hulda continued to tell me what a longing she had to see more of her betrothed; but she did not see him again till after the marriage ceremony.

“I will try to describe the ceremonies to you in detail, as I have now been to several weddings here, and I think you would like to know.

“A week before the wedding, all the relations and friends come to help bake and prepare the wedding-feast; for, as these proceedings last about eight days, it is no easy matter to celebrate them.

“The bride’s trousseau is shown to the guests who come, and everything is examined and counted by all, especially the relations of the bridegrooms.  When there happens to be less than expected, woe betide the bride, for she is always reproached about it by her mother-in-law or his other relatives.

“On the Sabbath before the marriage the bridegroom is called up to read the Law, and friends pay him visits.—­First they send him nicely baked cakes or puddings and a bottle of wine. (It is a good thing that this is the custom, or else a poor man would be ruined by the cost of all the feasting that he is expected to provide).

“During the week the bride’s friends come every evening and dance and sing in her home, coffee and cakes and baked nuts being handed round.

“The morning of the wedding, both bride and bridegroom fast, and each goes with his or her parents to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, to pray for a blessing on their married life, and then they go to be blessed by the Rav.

“When the bride returns home, she is dressed in her bridal dress.  Then she is led up to a chair that has been raised off the floor; her hair is unloosed and allowed to hang over her shoulders; and this is the last time, for the next day most of it is shaved off.