THE POMEGRANATE 287
of his marriage to the daughter of Li Tsu-gou 1 u. The latter
explained that the pomegranate encloses many seeds, and implies the wish for many sons and grandsons. Thus the fruit is still a favorite marriage gift or plays a rôle in the marriage feast.' The same is the case in modern Greece. Among the Arabs, the bride, when dismounting before the tent of the bridegroom, receives a pomegranate, which she smashes on the threshold, and then flings the seeds into the interior of the tent.' The Arabs would have a man like the pomegranate,--bittersweet, mild and affectionate with his friends in security, but tempered with a just anger if the time call him to be a defender in his own or in his neighbor's cause.'
1 See, for instance, H. DORE, Recherches sur les superstitions en Chine, pt. z Vol. II, P. 479.
2 A. Mum., Arabia Petraea, Vol. III, p. 191.
3 C. M. DOUGHTY, Travels in Arabia Deserta, Vol. I, p. 564.
IIIFカラー高解像度
