Pepper Tying

Pepper Tying is an Ouphe tradition where hot peppers are affixed to the clothing of newly wed couples to prevent the diminutive creatures from being eaten by monsters on their wedding night. Before an Ouphe wedding ceremony well wishers will come up to the couple individually and tie a brightly colored pepper to the their clothing. These peppers are know as Wedding Peppers and are cultivated by the Ouphes to be both very pretty and extremely hot. The peppers are small roughly the size of your thumb and slightly curved. They are brightly colored and vary from vibrant cardinal red to a deep burgundy almost purple color. Most importantly their heat is extremely potent both in intensity and duration.
The tradition came about as an attempt to prevent newly wed Ouphe couples from being attacked and eaten on their wedding night as this is almost always spent outside in the forest. So it was determined that if attempting to eat a newly wed couple caused the attacker burning pain it would stop attacking, leave the couple alone and dissuade the creature from attempting to eat future newly weds it may find. The effectiveness of this practice is questionable though the tradition is now set. It is not uncommon to see newly wed couples with dozens of these peppers tied haphazardly to their clothing walking into the forest together.
This tradition is so ingrain that should an Ouphe be invited to the wedding of another race they will inevitably bring peppers. Weather these peppers are given as a wedding gift, directly applied to the clothing, or surreptitiously attached durring the cerimony depends on the individual Ouphe. In the latter case it may leave the newly wed couple confused as to why they have several hot peppers attached to their clothing if they are unfamiliar with this tradition.