of marriage among the Calmucks is performed on horseback. A girl 

is first mounted, who rides off at full speed. Her lover pursues, 

and if he overtakes her she becomes his wife and the marriage is 

consummated upon the spot, after which she returns with him to 

his tent. But it sometimes happens that the woman does not wish 

to marry the person by whom she is pursued, in which case she 

will not suffer him to overtake her; and we were assured that no 

instance occurs of a Calmuck girl being thus caught, unless she 

has a partiality for her pursuer. If she dislikes him, she rides, 

to use the language of English sportsmen, 'neck or nothing,' 

until she has completely escaped or until the pursuer's horse is 

tired out, leaving her at liberty to return, to be afterward 

chased by some more favored admirer." (E.D. Clarke, _Travels_, 

1810, vol. i, p. 333.) 

Among the Bedouins marriage is arranged between the lover and the 

girl's father, often without consulting the girl herself. "Among 

the Arabs of Sinai the young maid comes home in the evening with 

the cattle. At a short distance from the camp she is met by the 

future spouse and a couple of his young friends and carried off 

by force to her father's tent. If she entertains any suspicion of 

their designs she defends herself with stones, and often inflicts 

wounds on the young men, even though she does not dislike the 

lover, for, according to custom, the more she struggles, bites, 

kicks, cries, and strikes, the more she is applauded ever after 

by her own companions." After being taken to her father's tent, 

where a man's cloak is thrown over her by one of the bridegroom's 

relations, she is dressed in garments provided by her future 

husband, and placed on a camel, "still continuing to struggle in 

a most unruly manner, and held by the bridegroom's friends on 

both sides." She is then placed in a recess of the husband's 

tent. Here the marriage is finally consummated, "the bride still 

continuing to cry very loudly. It sometimes happens that the 

husband is obliged to tie his bride, and even to beat her, before 

she can be induced to comply with his desires." If, however, she 

really does not like her husband, she is perfectly free to leave 

him next morning, and her father is obliged to receive her back 

whether he wishes to or not. It is not considered proper for a 

widow or divorced woman to make any resistance on being married. 

(J.L. Burckhardt, _Notes on the Bedouins and Wahabys_, 1830, p. 

149 et seq.) 

Among the Turcomans forays for capturing and enslaving their 

Persian neighbors were once habitual. Vambery describes their 

"marriage ceremonial when the young maiden, attired in bridal 

costume, mounts a high-bred courser, taking on her lap the 

carcass of a lamb or goat, and setting off at full gallop, 

followed by the bridegroom and other young men of the party, also 

on horseback; she is always to strive, by adroit turns, etc., to 

avoid her pursuers, that no one approach near enough to snatch 

from her the burden on her lap. This game, called _koekbueri_ 

(green wolf), is in use among all the nomads of central Asia." 

(A. Vambery, _Travels in Central Asia_, 1864, p. 323.) 

In China, a missionary describes how, when he was called upon to 

marry the daughter of a Chinese Christian brought up in native 

customs, he was compelled to wait several hours, as the bride 

refused to get up and dress until long after the time appointed 

for the wedding ceremony, and then only by force. "Extreme 

reluctance and dislike and fear are the true marks of a happy and 

lively wedding." (A.E. Moule, _New China and Old_, p. 128.) 

It is interesting to find that in the Indian art of love a kind 

of mock-combat, accompanied by striking, is a recognized and