The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-07-27
WHERE BRIDES ARE SOLD AS CHATTELs

~ T. PETERSBURG, July 26ZtSpe-
eial)-The putting up of eligible
~ wives to auction is steadily prac-
ticed in the Cars European dominions
The Kara Nogai steppe is the chief center
of this business. and most of the wom-
en- sold are Christian Russians In
order TO supply the bachelor Kara
Nogai Tartars with wives business is
carried on in all respects but one identi-
cal with the white slave trade which the
governments elsewhere are doing their
utmost to suppress
The Kara Nogai Tartars are rem
nants of a remarkable race. They took
their name from their sovereign Nosai
who in the fourteenth century founded
an Independent kingdom. In the reign
of Peter the Great they migrated from
their Volga home to the low lying plain
between the Black and Caspian seas; and
when the Russians subdued the Caucasus
about 20,00O emigrated to Asia Minor and
there mostly perished Those who re-
mained in Russia, miserable handful.
live between the rivers Terek and Kuma.
They are nomads; highly intelligent and
equally uncivilized; and they stick stoutly
to their Moslem faith.
The woe of the Nogai Tartars is that
they can't find wives They have only
about one woman to three men. The rich
men or "sultans" require several wives
and the poor are put to 1t to get any
at all. They are saved bu the fact that
even the poor are well off when com
pared with the miserable Christian mou-
jik. They have horses and oxen in
plenty And they exchange this for
wealthy wives So a regular market for
women has sprung up at karanogai, Ter
exile Mechteb, and other centers of the
Nogai steppe
The Kara Nosai Women Market is held
every three months. In the intervals are
only isolated sales In the middle of jan
uary, April, July and October agents
arrive at Kara Nogai with good looking
auctionable women, mostly Tartars or
Russians, Russians predominating. The
Tartar women belong to the Astrakhan
or Orenburg Tartar races; they are Mos
lens and are relatives of the Nogai Tar
tars The Christian women mostly be-
long to Russian settlements in the Cau-
casus, that is. TO a highly intelligent
and civilized class of Russias population
Many thousands of the Caucasus Christ
ians have been expelled from Russia
proper because they were religious sec
tarians. and they live particularly sober
and industrious lives This does not pre-
vent them parting with young girls, and
even their own wives, when women are
plentiful and money scarce. From these
sources, with an occasional Persian or
Georgian woman thrown in, the Nogai
marriage market is kept so well supplied
that only the poorest Tartars have to do
without wives.
The Nogai, Orengurg, and Astrakhon
Iartars have nothing against this mar
riage by auction: it is recognized, they
say by the Sheriat The Christian Rus
slams tolerate 1t out of poverty, and find
consolation in the fact that the Tartars
make good husbands, even though they
require their wives to embrace Islam
The auctions are carried on in what
Judged by the Tartar standards, is a per-
fectly orderly and decorous way. A week
before the market the Tartars build at
Kara Nogai a platform, which they dec
crate with flags, and with polished
square pieces of Standard Oil petroleum
tins. The platform Is circular in shape
$50 that there may be no angles in mat
rimony." When preparations are COM
plete. there arrive the agents who bring
batches of from four to ten girls. More
often than not the fathers of the girls
also come. in order to see fair play, and