THE HORSE AND HTS RIDER. 105 



or lounging in the public places. The women, he 

 says, ride better than the men, and a male Calmuck on 

 horseback looks as if he was intoxicated, and likely 

 to fall off every instant though he never loses his 

 seat ; but the women sit with much ease, and ride with 

 extraordinary skill. We shall see however by and by, 

 that the men are better equestrians than the learned 

 traveller supposed. The ceremony of marriage among 

 the Calmucks is performed on horseback. A girl is 

 first mounted and rides off at full speed. Her lover 

 pursues, and if he overtakes her she becomes his wife 

 on the spot, and then 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 Dr. Clarke was 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, in English sporting phrase, 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 afterwards chased by some more favoured admirer. 

 Of all the inhabitants of the Russian empire, the 

 Calmucks are the most distinguished by peculiarity of 

 feature and manners. In their personal appearance 

 they are athletic, and very forbidding. Their hair is 



