THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 99 



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 favored 

 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 

 coarse and black, their language harsh and guttural. 

 The Cossacks alone esteem them, and intermarry with 

 them; and these unions sometimes produce women of 

 very great beauty, although nothing is more hideous 



