messengers had to take the girl on his shoulders and carry her to an appointed spot, near the house of the bridegroom.[1]
In Asia, over the vast Mongol region extending from Kamtschatka to the country of the Turcomans, the ceremonial of capture is always held in honour.
This symbolism of capture is especially curious with the Kamtschatdales. There it is not as a conqueror that the husband enters the family of the wife, since he must first do an act of servitude, find the parents of the girl he desires, put himself at their service, and take his part in the domestic labour. This period of probation may last a long time, even years,[2] and surely it is a singular prelude to a marriage by violent capture. However, when the time of the novitiate is over, the future husband is allowed to triumph violently and publicly over the resistance of his bride. She is armed with thick garments, one over the other, and with straps and cords. Besides this she is guarded and defended by the women of the iourte. However, the marriage is not definitely concluded until the bridegroom, surmounting all these obstacles, succeeds in effecting on his well-defended bride a sort of outrage on modesty, that she herself must acknowledge by crying ni ni in a plaintive tone. But the girls and women of the guard fall on the assailant with great cries and blows, tear his hair, scratch his face, and sometimes throw him. Victory often necessitates repeated assaults and many days of combat. When at last it is gained, and the bride has herself acknowledged it, the marriage is settled, and is consummated the same evening in the iourte of the bride, who is not taken to her husband's house till the next day.[3]
The ceremonial of capture still continues in the marriages of the Kalmucks, the Tungouses, and the Turcomans, but has become less coarse.
With the Kalmucks the girl is first bought from her father, and then, after a pretended resistance, is carried away on a horse ready saddled.[4] The custom varies:
