The proof of real affection.
     That if he loves me, and holds me in his heart,
      As he frequently says he does,
      Tell him I hold him also present,
      That he may rely alone
      On this my pure word,
       If the flower has so great a wish (to know it).

But the Sardes can boast of finer poetry than
these improvised couplets of compliments.
A ballad directed against the tyranny of the
feudal barons (the worst features of feudal
tenure were not abolished untill eghteen
hundred and thirty-five), contains stanzas
which are magnificent even in translation.

Marriage follows love more or less in
Sardinia as elsewhere. When arrived at the
serious point, sometimes the lover,
accompanied by a friend, sometimes the lover's
father, proceeds to the house of the girl's
parents, and there gravely professes to have
lost a sheep, for which he is in search. If
the parents are agreeable to the match, they
proceed, if they have several daughters, to
present them one by one, reserving the one
wanted until the last. Then follows the
bargain as to exchange of gifts. A day is fixed
for the exchange, and the lover gives his
betrothed a solemn kiss—hence this meeting
is called ora del facio; and from this solemn
pledge he cannot swerve without dishonour
to his betrothed, and taking upon himself
the vengeance of her relatives and clan.
On the day of betrothal, the friends of the
bridegroom, called paralymphos, form a
procession, and carry the articles composing
his store to her father's house, where they
knock and pretend to be impatient because
the door is not immediately opened to them.
The inmates inquire, who and what are these
impatient people, and what they bring; to
which the paralymphos answer, that they
have honour and virtue. Then they are
admitted—the family and friends in their
gayest costume; and they proceed to
exchange the segnati or gifts; and the
list of the various articles being examined,
the business is solemnised by a feast.
The day of marriage is then fixed, and
proclaimed in the village church for three
consecutive Sundays. Eight days before it
takes place, the bridegroom, accompanied by
his friends, forms a procession with carts
loaded with the furniture, &c., he has
undertaken to supply, to the house of the intended
bride. Here they are examined, condemned
if not up to the customary mark, and when
finally passed, repacked and conducted in
state to the new house of the bridegroom.

The bride's procession follows a few days
afterwards. The musicians, playing on the
peculiar pipes of the island, march first, and
friends follow, each carrying something: one
a looking-glass, another a basket of crockery
and glasses, a third a new distaff, with the
flax or wool ready to be spun off. Another
guest carries the picture of the favourite
saint, destined to adorn the nuptial bed. A
pillow, trimmed with coloured ribbons and
myrtle, is a favourite gift; and the prettiest
maiden of the party carries the vase to be
used thereafter by the bride for fetching
water from the fountain, but which, on this
occasion, is filled with flowers. Each of her
friends is the bearer of some little article
of future use. Behind them follow the
carts with the heavy goods, the horns of
the oxen tipped with oranges and covered
with coloured ribbons. Some wheat, with a
pair of grinding stones, fill a separate cart,
behind which follows the ass whose future
duty it will be to work the mill, his ears
and tail adorned with ribbons and flowers.
All the furniture being arranged, is adorned
with flowers, which, however faded, must not
be removed for many months after the
marriage. On the marriage day the bridegroom
proceeds with his companions to the house
of the bride; who on his arrival takes her
farewell, receives the blessings of her parents,
and is consigned to the hands of the priest.
The bride takes with her a bottle of wine
and a cake of the finest wheat, coloured with
saffron and adorned with flowers, as a
present to the priest; and distributes several
cakes of her own making among her young
friends in the procession.

The ceremony being over, they return home;
where, at the marriage feast, the young
couple, seated next each other, eat soup out
of the same basin and with the same spoon.
During the festivities which follow the feast,
the bride is not allowed to move or speak
during the whole day, though around her all
is gaiety and merry-making. She must not
speak a word until she leaves her grand chair
to start for her own house. She is then placed
upon a horse gaily caparisoned; and, led by
one of the men at the right hand of the
bridegroom, the females following behind her, and
the men joining in his retinue. The cavalcade
is preceded by the launedda, or Sarde pipes
(an exact copy of the instrument on which Pan
and the satyrs perform in ancient bas-reliefs),
playing a nuptial song, in the chorus
of which the whole party from time to time
join. On arriving at the court of the house,
the mother receives the bride,and sprinkles
her with grain and salt. On reaching the
door, she alights from her horse upon a little
table covered with a gay piece of carpet,
and thus passes into the house without
touching the threshold. The bride is then
accompanied to the bridal chamber, the
nearest relative sprinkling her with razia,
bonbons made of sugared nuts and almonds,
and a glass of water is emptied at her feet as
she enters the chamber. A dance concludes
the amusements of the day, in which the
bride and bridegroom take no part.

If we turn to our classical dictionary, we
shall find that the Sardes are married with,
almost exactly the same rites and ceremonies
as the Romans. The dance, or Ballo di
Tondo, of which they are passionately fond,