ABSTRACT
CHAPTER SEVEN and CHAPTER EIGHT are on Parsee marriage songs collected from the village Nargol in south Gujarat in 1907. Besides being interesting and instructive, the marriage songs sung by Parsee ladies give expression to the inmost thoughts and feelings of the people. CHAPTER SEVEN lists out 20 such songs sung during different occasions of marriage festivities. There are songs sung by the ladies before the arrival, and after the arrival of the drummers that marks the beginning of the marriage festival in the house; when decorating the house front, when couple enters the house; when the bride is adorned with a new set of dress; when bridegroom and bride take the sacred bath at respective homes; when the wedding is completed and so on. CHAPTER EIGHT draws out ancient epithalamiums or marriage songs of Solomon, Zoroaster, and of poet Spenser. These songs though specially celebrating or referring to some particular marriages make a general appeal to womanhood. The sung songs are meant not only for the ears of the bride and bridegroom but also for the ears of all future brides and bridegrooms gathered to attend the marriage. Later, it lists out nine songs sung during the murat or first auspicious time of planting the ber of marriage festivity and feasts and also a part of songs sung during cleaning the wheat in winnowing fans.
