30
Kuljan’s Wedding
By the request of the mayirs, the wedding was set for the first day of Easter, when they could attend it without any detriment to their military duties.
After the engagement Jaisak settled at the herders’ camp so as not to disturb the usual course of the wedding ceremony which had to take place alternately at the bride’s and groom’s place of residence. The last, seventh part of the wedding ritual was to be performed at Djantemir’s aul, in the white yurt Kuljan had received with her dowry; in it the newlyweds would live from then on.
The day before the neighbors started arriving at the aul to help with the preparations for the wedding. Jaisak, in the meantime, had left the herders’ camp with a retinue of friends, and according to custom made a halt half a verst from
