A man sees a woman whom he fancies he should like for a wife; he asks the consent of her father, or, if an orphan, of her nearest relative, which, if he obtain, he carries his intended off by force, she resisting with all her strength, and, as the New Zealand girls are generally fairly robust, sometimes a dreadful struggle takes place; both are soon stripped to the skin and it is sometimes the work of hours to remove the fair prize a hundred yards.  It sometimes happens that she secures her retreat into her father’s house, and the lover loses all chance of ever obtaining her.” (A.  Earle, Narratives of Residence in New Zealand, 1832, p. 244.)

Among the Eskimos (probably near Smith Sound) “there is no marriage ceremony further than that the boy is required to carry off his bride by main force, for even among these blubber-eating people the woman only saves her modesty by a show of resistance, although she knows years beforehand that her destiny is sealed and that she is to become the wife of the man from whose embraces, when the nuptial day comes, she is obliged by the inexorable law of public opinion to free herself, if possible, by kicking and screaming with might and main until she is safely landed in the hut of her future lord, when she gives up the combat very cheerfully and takes possession of her new abode.  The betrothal often takes place at a very early period of life and at very dissimilar ages.”  Marriage only takes place when the lover has killed his first seal; this is the test of manhood and maturity. (J.J.  Hayes, Open Polar Sea, 1867, p. 432.)

Marriage by “capture” is common in war and raiding in central Africa.  “The women, as a rule,” Johnston says, “make no very great resistance on these occasions.  It is almost like playing a game.  A woman is surprised as she goes to get water at the stream, or when she is on the way to or from the plantation.  The man has only got to show her she is cornered and that escape is not easy or pleasant and she submits to be carried off.  As a general rule, they seem to accept very cheerfully these abrupt changes in their matrimonial existence.” (Sir H.H.  Johnston, British Central Africa, p. 412.)

Among the wild tribes of the Malay Peninsula in one form of wedding rite the bridegroom is required to run seven times around an artificial mound decorated with flowers and the emblem of the people’s religion.  In the event of the bridegroom failing to catch the bride the marriage has to be postponed.  Among the Orang Laut, or sea-gipsies, the pursuit sometimes takes the form of a canoe-race; the woman is given a good start and must be overtaken before she has gone a certain distance. (W.W.  Skeat, Journal Anthropological Institute, Jan.-June, 1902, p. 134; Skeat and Blagden, Pagan Races of the Malay, vol. ii, p. 69 et seq., fully discuss the ceremony around the mound.)

“Calmuck women ride better than