widows, are not punishable by Kafir law, neither does any disgrace attach to either sex by committing such acts."1 In Madagascar "continence is not supposed to exist in either sex before marriage, . . . and its absence is not regarded as a vice.” 2 Among the Maoris of New Zealand "girls were at perfect liberty to act as they pleased until married," and chastity in single women was held of little account.3 In the Tonga Islands unmarried women might bestow their favours upon whomsoever they pleased without any opprobrium, although it was thought shameful for a woman frequently to change her lover. In the Solomon Islands "female chastity is a virtue that would sound strangely in the ear of the native"; and in St. Christoval and the adjacent islands, "for two or three years after a girl has become eligible for marriage, she distributes her favours amongst all the young men of the village.” 5 In the Malay Archipelago intercourse between unmarried people is very commonly considered neither a crime nor a disgrace; and the same is perhaps even more generally the case among the uncivilised races of India and Indo-China.7 Among the Angami Nagas, for instance, "girls consider short hair, the symbol of virginity, a disgrace, and are anxious to become entitled to wear it long; men are desirous before marriage to have proof that their wives will not be barren.... Chastity begins with marriage." The Jakuts see nothing immoral in free love, provided only that nobody suffers material loss by it." Among the Votyaks it is disgraceful for a girl to be little sought after by the young men, and it is honourable for her to have children; she then gets a wealthier husband, and a higher price is paid for her to her father.10 The Kamchadales set no great value on the virginity of their brides.11 Of the Point Barrow Eskimo Mr. Murdoch writes:-"As to the relations between the sexes there seems to be the most complete absence of what we consider moral feelings. Promiscuous sexual

1 Warner, in Maclean, Compendium

of Kafir Laws, p. 63.

2 Ellis, History of Madagascar, i. 137 59.

3 Taylor, Te Ika a Maui, p. 33. Gisborne, Colony of New Zealand, P. 27.

• Mariner, Natives of the Tonga Islands, ii. 174.

Guppy, Solomon Islands, p. 43.

6 Wilken, 'Plechtigheden en gebrui ken bij verlovingen en huwelijken bij de volken van den Indischen Archipel,' in Bijdragen tot de taal- land- en vol

kenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, ser. v. vol. iv. 434 sqq.

7 Westermarck, History of Human Marriage, p. 71. Crooke, Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, i. p. clxxxiv.

Prain, Angami Nagas,' in Revue coloniale internationale, v. 491 sq. 9 Sumner, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxxi. 96.

10 Buch, Die Wotjäken,' in Acta Soc. Scientiarum Fennica, xii. 509. 11 Georgi, Russia, iii. 156.

intercourse between married or unmarried people, or even among children, appears to be looked upon simply as a matter for amusement. As far as we could learn, unchastity in a girl was considered nothing against her. The immorality of these people among themselves, as we witnessed it, seems too purely animal and natural to be of recent growth or the result of foreign influence. Moreover, a similar state of affairs has been observed among Eskimo elsewhere." 1

Yet however commonly chastity is disregarded in the savage world, we must not suppose that such disregard is anything like a universal characteristic of the lower races. In a previous work I have given a list of numerous savage and barbarous peoples among whom unchastity before marriage is looked upon as a disgrace or a crime for a woman, sometimes punishable with banishment from the community or even with death; and it is noteworthy that to this group of peoples belong savages of so low a type as the Veddahs of Ceylon, the Igorrotes of Luzon,* and certain Australian tribes. I have also called attention to facts which seem to prove that in several cases the wantonness of savages is largely due to foreign influence. The pioneers of a "higher civilisation higher civilisation" are very frequently unmarried men who go out to make their living in uncivilised lands, and, though unwilling to contract regular marriages with native women, they have no objection to corrupting their morals. Moreover, in many tribes the free

1

Murdoch, Ethnological Results of the Point Barrow Expedition,' in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. ix. 419 sq. See also Turner, 'Ethnology of the Ungava District,' in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. xi. 189 (Koksoagmyut); Parry, Second Voyage for the Discovery of a NorthWest Passage, p. 529 (Eskimo of Igloolik and Winter Island).

2 Westermarck, op. cit. p. 61 sqq. 3 Nevill, Vaeddas of Ceylon,' in Taprobanian, i. 178.

Meyer, Igorrotes von Luzon,' in Verhandl Berliner Gesellsch. f. Anthrop. 1883, p. 384 sq. Blumentritt, Ethnographie der Philippinen,

South Australian Aborigines, p. 19.

6 It is strange to hear from a modern student of anthropology, and especially from an Australian writer, that in sexual licence the savage has never anything to learn and that all that the lower fringe of civilised men can do to harm the uncivilised is to stoop to the level of the latter instead of teaching them a better way" (Sutherland, Origin and Growth of the Moral Instinct, i. 186). Mr. Edward Stephens (Aborigines of Australia,' in Jour. & Proceed. Royal Soc. N. S. Wales, xxiii. 480) has a very different story to tell with reference to the tribes which once inhabited the Adelaide Plains in South Australia and whose acquaintance he made more than half a century ago.

intercourse which prevails between unmarried people is not of a promiscuous nature, and leads necessarily to marriage should the girl prove with child. Nay, among various uncivilised races not only the girl, but the man who seduces her is subject to punishment or censure.

71.

Among the East African Takue a seducer may have to pay the same sum as if he had killed the girl, although the fine is generally reduced to fifty cows. Among the Beni Amer and Marea he is killed, together with the girl and the child.3 In Tessaua a fine of 100,000 kurdi is imposed on the father of a bastard child. Among the Beni Mzab a man who seduces a girl has to pay two hundred francs and is banished for four years. Among the Tedâ he is exposed to the revenge of her father. The Baziba look upon illegitimate intercourse between the sexes as the most serious offence, though no action is taken until the birth of a child; "then the man and woman are bound hand and foot and thrown into Lake Victoria." 7 Among the Bakoki, whilst the girl was driven from home and remained for ever after an outcast, the man was fined three cows to her father and one to the chief. Certain West African savages described by Mr. Winwood Reade, who banish from the clan a girl guilty of wantonness, inflict severe flogging on the seducer." In Dahomey a man who seduces a girl is compelled by law to marry her and to pay eighty cowries to the parent or master 10 Among some Kafir tribes the father or guardian of a woman who becomes pregnant can demand a fine of one head of cattle from the father of the child; 11 whilst in the Gaika tribe the mere seduction of a virgin incurs the fine of three or four head of cattle.12 Casalis mentions an interesting custom prevalent among the Basutos, which on the one hand illustrates the belief that sexual intercourse in certain circumstances exposes a person to supernatural danger, and on the other hand indicates that unchastity in unmarried men is not looked upon with perfect indifference :-Immediately after the birth of a child the fire of the dwelling was kindled afresh. "For this purpose it was necessary that a young man of chaste habits should rub two

1 Westermarck, op. cit. pp. 23, 24,

449.

Nachtigal, Sahara und Sudan, i.

7 Cunningham, Uganda, p. 290. 8 Ibid. p. 102.

Reade, Savage Africa, p. 261. 10 Forbes, Dahomey, i. 26. 11 Warner, in Maclean, op. cit. p. 64. 12 Brownlee, ibid. p. 112.

pieces of wood quickly one against another, until a flame sprung up, pure as himself. It was firmly believed that a premature death awaited him who should dare to take upon himself this office, after having lost his innocence. As soon, therefore, as a birth was proclaimed in the village, the fathers took their sons to undergo the ordeal. Those who felt themselves guilty confessed their crime, and submitted to be scourged rather than expose themselves to the consequences of a fatal temerity." Livingstone, speaking of the good name which. was given to him by the Bakwains, observes :- "No one ever gains much influence in this country without purity and uprightness. The acts of a stranger are keenly scrutinised by both young and old, and seldom is the judgment pronounced, even by the heathen, unfair or uncharitable. I have heard women speaking in admiration of a white man, because he was pure, and never was guilty of any secret immorality. Had he been, they would have known it, and, untutored heathen though they be, would have despised him in consequence." 2

3

Of the Australian Maroura tribe, Lower Darling, we are told that before the advent of the whites "their laws were strict, especially those regarding young men and young women. It was almost death to a young lad or man who had sexual intercourse till married." Among various tribes in Western Victoria "illegitimacy is rare, and is looked upon with such abhorrence that the mother is always severely beaten by her relatives, and sometimes put to death and burned. Her child is occasionally killed and burned with her. The father of the child is also punished with the greatest severity, and occasionally killed." 4

In Nias the pregnancy of an unmarried girl is punished with death, inflicted not only upon her but upon the seducer as well.5 Among the Bódo and Dhimáls of India chastity is prized in man and woman, married and unmarried." Among the Tunguses "in irregular amours only the men are punished,' the seducer being obliged either to purchase the girl at a certain price or, if he refuses, to submit to corporal punishment.7 Among the Thlinkets, "if unmarried women prove frail the partner of their guilt, if discovered, is bound to make reparation to the parents, soothing their wounded honour with handsome

1 Casalis, Basutos, p. 267 sq.

2 Livingstone, Missionary Travels, p. 513.

3 Holden, in Taplin, Folklore of the South Australian Aborigines, p. 19. 4 Dawson, Australian Aborigines,

5 Wilken, in Bijdragen tot de taal land- en volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indie, ser. v. vol. iv. 444.

6 Hodgson, Miscellaneous Essays, i. 123.

Georgi, op. cit. iii. 84.

presents." ." In certain North American tribes the seducer is said to be viewed with even more contempt than the girl whom he has dishonoured.2

Passing to more advanced races, we find that chastity is regarded as a duty for unmarried women, whilst a different. standard of morality is generally applied to men. "Confucianism," says Mr. Griffis, "virtually admits two standards of morality, one for man, another for woman. ... Chastity is a female virtue, it is a part of womanly duty, it has little or no relation to man personally.' 3 Yet it is

5

held up as an ideal even to men. It is said that in youth, when the physical powers are not yet settled, the superior man guards against lust. Though licentious in their habits, the Chinese exalt and dignify chastity as a means of bringing the soul and body nearer to the highest excellence; one of their proverbs even maintains that "of the myriad vices, lust is the worst." Chastity for its own sake, when defended by a woman at the expense of her life, meets with a reward at the hands of the Government. "If a woman so the Ordinances run-" be compelled by her husband to prostitute herself for money, and takes her own life in order to preserve her chastity, or if an unmarried virgin loses her life in defending herself against violation, an honorary gate shall be erected in each case near the door of the paternal dwelling." According to the Chinese Penal Code, "criminal intercourse by mutual consent with an unmarried woman shall be punished with seventy blows," whilst the punishment for such intercourse with a married woman is eighty blows.

9

Among the ancient Hebrews fornication was forbidden. to women but not to men. The action of Judah towards the supposed harlot on the way to Timnath is mentioned

1 Douglas, quoted by Petroff, Report on Alaska, p. 177.

2 Westermarck, op. cit. p. 66.

3 Griffis, Religions of Japan, p. 149. 4 Lun Yu, xvi. 7.

5 Wells Williams, Middle Kingdom, ii. 193.

6 Smith, Proverbs of the Chinese,

p. 256.

7 de Groot, Religious System of China, (vol. ii. book) i. 752 sq.

8 Ta Tsing Leu Lee, sec. ccclxvi. p. 404.

9 Leviticus, xix. 29. Deuteronomy, xxiii. 18.