A writer in the New York _Commercial Advertiser_, describing certain
curious marriage customs, says:
In some cases the ceremony takes the form of what is called
bride-racing. The girl is given a certain start and the lover is
expected to overtake her. An observer among the Calmucks assures
us that no Calmuck girl is ever caught “unless she have a
partiality for her pursuer.” _Per contra_, Mr. Kennan tells
us of a bride-race among the Koriacks (northern Asia) which he
witnest, where the girl went scampering, pursued by her lover,
through a succession of compartments, called pologs, in a large
tent. So nimble was the maid that she distanced her pursuer,
but--she waited for him in the last polog! All of which goes to
prove that the wise men of old knew what they were talking about
when they said that the race is not always to the swift.
(1977)