This symbolism of capture is especially curious with the Kamtschatdales. There it is not as a conqueror that the husband enters the family of the wife, since he must first do an act of servitude, find the parents of the girl he desires, put himself at their service, and take his part in the domestic labour. This period of probation may last a long time, even years,[239] and surely it is a singular prelude to a marriage by violent capture. However, when the time of the novitiate is over, the future husband is allowed to triumph violently and publicly over the resistance of his bride. She is armed with thick garments, one over the other, and with straps and cords. Besides this she is guarded and defended by the women of the _iourte_. However, the marriage is not definitely concluded until the bridegroom, surmounting all these obstacles, succeeds in effecting on his well-defended bride a sort of outrage on modesty, that she herself must acknowledge by crying _ni ni_ in a plaintive tone. But the girls and women of the guard fall on the assailant with great cries and blows, tear his hair, scratch his face, and sometimes throw him. Victory often necessitates repeated assaults and many days of combat. When at last it is gained, and the bride has herself acknowledged it, the marriage is settled, and is consummated the same evening in the _iourte_ of the bride, who is not taken to her husband’s house till the next day.[240] The ceremonial of capture still continues in the marriages of the Kalmucks, the Tungouses, and the Turcomans, but has become less coarse. With the Kalmucks the girl is first bought from her father, and then, after a pretended resistance, is carried away on a horse ready saddled.[241] The custom varies: sometimes it is enough to place the bride, by force, on a horse; sometimes she flees, always on horseback, but is pursued and caught by the bridegroom, who consummates the marriage on the spot, and then conducts his prize to his tent.[242] The Tungouses, coarser still, proceed by an attempt on modesty, as with the Kamtschatdales; the bridegroom must attack his bride and tear her clothes.[243] With the Turcomans, marriage can be concluded with or without the consent of the parents. In the latter case, the young people fly and seek refuge in a neighbouring _obah_. They are always well received there, and remain a month or six weeks. During this time the elders of the two _obahs_ negotiate an arrangement with the parents; they agree on the price of the girl, who afterwards returns to the paternal domicile; she must remain six months or a year, or even longer, before living with her husband, and during all this time he may only see her secretly. Sometimes the flight is executed with the previous consent of the parents, and then it is no more than a symbolic capture,[244] a comedy.