The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1915-05-13
RACE FOR A WIFE.
Getting Married Is a Strange
Game In Frigid Kamchatka.
AN ORDEAL FOR THE GROOM.
After Working Hard For a Few Years
For the Girls Father He Finally Wins
Her In a Public Chase, In Which He
Gets His Skin Well Tanned.

For the Girls Father He Finally Wins
Her In Public Chase, In Which He
Gets His Skin Well Tanned.
1t gets too hot for the Siberian ONLY
once in lifetime. The native Koryak
OF Kamchatka, far up in the peninsula
that Is washed by the Bering sea, can
sleep comfortably in a room four feet
high with six by eight feet of floor
space and have fire smoking near all
night while the doors are tightly closed,
and then does not object if three 9TH
ers share his apartment with him. To
morrow he will have chance enough to
breathe more cold, fresh air than he
cares for. His picture Of the happy
hereafter is snug, coy place where
every cell of his body can perpetually
enjoy warmth and where neither ears,
fingers nor toes shall be frozen.
Once in his life, however, things get
a little hotter than he can honestly en-
joy, and that once he cannot escape if
he is to be a man of importance in the
community, for it is his marriage cere-
mony. AS soon as the youth falls in
love in dead earnest he calls on the
maiden's father to find out what dow
~ she can bring in case Of eventual
marriage. Since reindeer is the kOr-
yak's medium Of exchange, the dOwry
usually consists of reindeer If the ia
Their consents to the engagement and
the dowry pleases the young man he
interviews the girl, and if she reciprO
Gates his affection he enters her ia
Tiers service. Chopping wood, tend
ing the herds, cultivating the garden
and all other kinds of farm work fall
to his share. The period of service
lasts from two to three years.
The marriage ceremony begins about
6 in the evening. There is q building
in the village into which the villagers
crowd at twilight. A large hall runs
through the center of the building on
either side of which are from ten to
fifteen little rooms called pOlogs. Each
polog is separated from the next by
heavy reindeer curtains, and the en-
trance from each polog into the hall
is closed by similar curtains. Nowhere
in all that building except in the hall
could good sized man stand upright.
After conSidera BILE eating and some
drinking a brass drum begins to beat
At the same time a solemn faced Ko-
ryak passes from one polog to another,
dropping willow sprouts and alder
branches in each Enclosure. Presently
the beater of the drum begins to sing,
to accompany his slow performance on
the drum. Gradually he accelerates his
beats and his song. Faster and faster
he smites his drum; louder and louder
he sings, until within thirty minutes
he has worked himself into a state Of
frenZy-a consummation that is not
without its effect upon the villagers.
The stolid calm with which they enter
ed, suggestive of an impending funeral,
gives place to smiles, to tossings Of the
head. until by and by the whole crowd
is as excited as its leader.
At this point, the front curtain Of
each polog goes up, and two or three
women appear inside. In their hands
are willow sprouts and alder branch
es In a. moment the father of the
bridegroom enters the building, leading
the happy couple by the hand The
noise, the shouting and the whirling
now become indeScribable. At sig
nal from the groom's father the bride
dashes into the first polog to the right.
The women that are within lift the
- curtain for her, and she passes quickly
from one compartment to the next.
Not so with the groom. He dashes
after her, but no sooner has he entered
the first polog than the women begin
to beat him with the willow sprouts
and alder branches. He seizes the cur
tain to enter the next polog, but one or
two women hold it down, and if he
finally succeeds there is a hot applica-
ton of branches on that part of his
anatomy that remains longest within
the poiog.
Meanwhile the women in the next
polog are ready to receive him with
equal warmth. They ply the switches
theoretically and do not hesitate to
thrust out foot also in order that the
''happy groom may stumble and af-
ford a more enduring target for their
blows.
There is no escape from this expert
ence until the groom has entered and
passed through every one of those
twenty or thirty pologs. The front cur
tains are raised, so that the public has
clear chance to enjoy the spectacle.
OF course he never catches the bride.
he hos hn Ia ct hnfnrQ
he is halfway through. If she passes
out of the last polog he must work an
other year at her fathers house and
pass through the same ordeal once
more. But she usually awaits him In
the last polog. and when they meet
there the wedding ceremony is finished
and they are man and wife.-Youth's
Companion. =.