She was girt round the waist with rich-colored mats, which formed a long train, like a court dress, trailing on the ground five or six feet behind her.
"That's the bride, I suppose," Muriel whispered, now really interested--for what woman on earth, wherever she may be, can resist the seductive delights of a wedding?
"Yes, her a bride," Mali answered; "and ladies what follow, them her bridesmaids." At the word, six other girls, similarly dressed, though without the train, and demure as nuns, emerged from the hut in slow order, two and two, behind her.
Muriel and Felix moved forward with natural curiosity toward the scene.
The natives, now ranged in a row along the path, with mats turned inward, made way for them gladly.

All seem pleased that Heaven should thus auspiciously honor the occasion; and the bride herself, as well as the bridegroom, who, decked in shells and teeth, advanced from the opposite side along the path to meet her, looked up with grateful smiles at the two Europeans.

Muriel, in return, smiled her most gracious and girlish recognition.

As the bride drew near, she couldn't refrain from bending forward a little to look at the girl's really graceful costume.

As she did so, the skirt of her own European dress brushed for a second against the bride's train, trailed carelessly many yards on the ground behind her.
Almost before they could know what had happened, a wild commotion arose, as if by magic, in the crowd around them.