her lap the carcass of a lamb or goat, and setting off at full gallop, followed by the bridegroom and other young men of the party, also on horseback; she is always to strive, by adroit turns, etc., to avoid her pursuers, that no one approach near enough to snatch from her the burden on her lap.  This game, called koekbueri (green wolf), is in use among all the nomads of central Asia.”  (A.  Vambery, Travels in Central Asia, 1864, p. 323.)

In China, a missionary describes how, when he was called upon to marry the daughter of a Chinese Christian brought up in native customs, he was compelled to wait several hours, as the bride refused to get up and dress until long after the time appointed for the wedding ceremony, and then only by force.  “Extreme reluctance and dislike and fear are the true marks of a happy and lively wedding.” (A.E.  Moule, New China and Old, p. 128.)

It is interesting to find that in the Indian art of love a kind of mock-combat, accompanied by striking, is a recognized and normal method of heightening tumescence.  Vatsyayana has a chapter “On Various Manners of Striking,” and he approves of the man striking the woman on the back, belly, flanks, and buttocks, before and during coitus, as a kind of play, increasing as sexual excitement increases, which the woman, with cries and groans, pretends to bid the man to stop.  It is mentioned that, especially in southern India, various instruments (scissors, needles, etc.) are used in striking, but this practice is condemned as barbarous and dangerous. (Kama Sutra, French translation, iii, chapter v.)

In the story of Aladdin, in the Arabian Nights, the bride is undressed by the mother and the other women, who place her in the bridegroom’s bed “as if by force, and, according to the custom of the newly married, she pretends to resist, twisting herself in every direction, and seeking to escape from their hands.” (Les Mille Nuits, tr.  Mardrus, vol. xi, p. 253.)

It is said that in those parts of Germany where preliminary Probenaechte before formal marriage are the rule it is not uncommon for a young woman before finally giving herself to a man to provoke him to a physical struggle.  If she proves stronger she dismisses him; if he is stronger she yields herself willingly.  (W.  Henz, “Probenaechte,” Sexual-Probleme, Oct., 1910, p. 743.)

Among the South Slavs of Servia and Bulgaria, according to Krauss, it is the custom to win a woman by seizing her by the ankle and bringing her to the ground by force.  This method of wooing is to the taste of the woman, and they are refractory to any other method.  The custom of beating or being beaten before coitus is also found among the South Slavs. (Kryptadia, vol. vi, p. 209.)

In earlier days violent courtship was viewed with approval in the European world, even