Kyz kuu (catch the girl)

An old game on horseback in which a young man chases a girl, and then the girl chases him.

Names among the peoples

qız-qov (Azerbaijanis)
qız quu (Kazakhs)
kız kuumay (Kyrgyz)
qız quu (Bashkirs)

About

Kyz kuu is a game on horseback of the Turkic peoples — the Azerbaijanis, the Kazakhs, the Kyrgyz; its name means "chase the girl". The Kazakhs call it qyz quu, the Kyrgyz kyz kuumai.

A young man and a girl ride in the game. When the girl, coming from behind, passes the young man, he starts to gallop after her. If he catches her before the finish line, he may kiss her, and that counts as his victory. If he does not, the girl turns round and chases him back to the starting line: if she comes within reach she strikes him with her whip, and the victory is hers.

History

As K. Amanzhol writes, the game goes back to the ancient time when girls were warriors and riders: a girl set conditions before the man who sought her hand, a horse race among them, and the winner gained the right to marry her. In changed form several variants of the game lived on at weddings and other festivities: between the bride and the groom, or between the bride's friends and the young men who came with the groom.

In K. K. Yudakhin's Kyrgyz dictionary the first meaning of kyz kuumai is given as a wedding custom: the groom, on a poor horse, chases the bride, who rides a good one. In the Kazakh game a turning post was set at the end of the field; the rider who failed to catch the girl rode back under the blows of her whip, and such a failure was long remembered.

Rules in brief

As F. Bayat describes it, in the Azerbaijani game Qız qov (also Qıza çat) mounted young men contend with one mounted girl. The game is made up of the ride out and the ride back. On the first part of the course — roughly the first 300 to 400 metres — the young man has to chase the girl and catch up with her; if he fails, on the way back she lashes him with her whip.

The chief prohibition is this: the young man may not take hold of the girl by the neck — because of the danger that she might fall from her horse. The game tests horsemanship, quickness and the ability to catch an opponent before a set distance is run; it is also held between teams.

Peoples

Research: Vasif Namazov, Turan Games Concept