their sex, the observance of the sacred marriage vow must be so in a still higher degree. But here again there is a considerable discrepancy between the actual feelings of Christian peoples and the standard of their religion. Even in the laws of various European countries relating to divorce or judicial separation we find an echo of the popular notion that adultery is a smaller offence in a husband than in a wife.1 The judgment pronounced upon an unfaithful husband is of course influenced by the opinion about extramatrimonial connections in general. Where it is considered wrong for a man to have intercourse with either an unmarried woman or another man's wife, adultery in a husband is eo ipso condemned. But whether, or how far, infidelity on his part is stigmatised as an offence against his wife, chiefly depends upon the degree of regard which is paid to the feelings of women. That a married man generally enjoys more liberty than a married woman is largely due to the same causes as make him the more privileged partner in other respects; but there are also special reasons for this inequality between the sexes. was a doctrine of the Roman jurists that adultery is a crime in the wife, and in the wife only, on account of the danger of introducing strange children to the husband.2 Moreover, the temptation to infidelity and the facility in indulging in it are commonly greater in the case of the husband than in that of the wife; and, as we have often noticed before, actual practice is always apt to influence moral opinion. And a still more important reason for the inequality in question is undoubtedly the general notion that unchastity of any kind is more discreditable for a woman than for a man. 1 See supra, ii. 397 It 2 Hunter, Exposition of Roman Law, p. 1071. CHAPTER XLIII HOMOSEXUAL LOVE OUR review of the moral ideas concerning sexual relations has not yet come to an end. The gratification of the sexual instinct assumes forms which fall outside the ordinary pale of nature. Of these there is one which, on account of the rôle which it has played in the moral history of mankind, cannot be passed over in silence, namely, intercourse between individuals of the same sex, what is nowadays commonly called homosexual love. It is frequently met with among the lower animals.1 It probably occurs, at least sporadically, among every race of mankind. And among some peoples it has assumed such proportions as to form a true national habit. In America homosexual customs have been observed among a great number of the native tribes. In nearly every part of the continent there seem to have been, since ancient times, men dressing themselves in the clothes and performing the functions of women, and living with other men as their concubines or wives. Moreover, between 1 Karsch, Päderastie und Tribadie bei den Tieren,' in Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen, ii. 126 sqq. Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, 'Sexual Inversion,' p. 2 sqq. 2 Cf. Ives, Classification of Crimes, p. 49. The statement that it is unknown among a certain people cannot reasonably mean that it may not be practised in secret. 3 von Spix and von Martius, Travels 3 in Brazil, ii. 246; von Martius, Von dem Rechtszustande unter den Ureinwohnern Brasiliens, p. 27 sq.; Lomonaco, 'Sulle razze indigene del Brasile,' in Archivio per l'antropologia e la etnologia, xix. 46; Burton, Arabian Nights, x. 246 (Brazilian Indians). Garcilasso de la Vega, First Part of the Royal Commentaries of the Yncas, ii. 441 sqq.; Cieza de Leon, 'La crónica del Perú [primera parte],' ch. 49, in young men who are comrades in arms there are liaisons d'amitié, which, according to Lafitau, "ne laissent aucun soupçon de vice apparent, quoiqu'il y ait, ou qu'il puisse y avoir, beaucoup de vice réel." Homosexual practices are, or have been, very prominent among the peoples in the neighbourhood of Behring Sea.2 In Kadiak it was the custom for parents who had a girl-like son to dress and rear him as a girl, teaching him only domestic duties, keeping him at woman's work, and letting him associate only with women and girls. Arriving at the age of ten or fifteen years, he was married to some wealthy man and was then called an achnuchik or shoopan. Dr. Bogoraz gives the following account of a Biblioteca de autores españoles, xxvi. 403 (Peruvian Indians at the time of the Diaz Spanish conquest). Oviedo y Valdés, Sumario de la natural historia de las Indias,' ch. 81, in Biblioteca de autores españoles, xxii. 508 (Isthmians). Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, i. 585 (Indians of New Mexico); ii. 467 sq. (ancient Mexicans). del Castillo, 'Conquista de NuevaEspaña,' ch. 208, in Biblioteca de autores españoles, xxvi. 309 (ancient Mexicans). Landa, Relacion de las cosas de Yucatan, p. 178 (ancient Yucatans). Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, 'Naufragios y relacion de la jornada que hizo a la Florida,' ch. 26, in Biblioteca de autores españoles, xxii. 538; Coreal, Voyages aux Indes Occidentales, i. 33 sq. (Indians of Florida). Perrin du Lac, Voyage dans les deux Louisianes et chez les nations sauvages du Missouri, p. 352; Bossu, Travels through Louisiana, i. 303. Hennepin, Nouvelle Découverte d'un très Grand Pays Situé dans l'Amerique, p. 219 sq.; La Salle's Last Expedition and Discoveries in North America,' in Collections of the New-York Historical Society, ii. 237 sq.; de Lahontan, Mémoires de l'Amérique septentrionale, p. 142 (Illinois). Marquette, Recit des voyages, p. 52 sq. (Illinois and Naudowessies). WiedNeuwied, Travels in the Interior of North America, p. 351 (Manitaries, Mandans, &c.). McCoy, History of Baptist Indian Missions, p. 360 sq. (Osages). Heriot, Travels through the Canadas, p. 278; Catlin, North American Indians, ii. 214 sq. (Sioux). Dorsey, Omaha Sociology,' in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. iii. 365; James, Expedi tion from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, i. 267 (Omahas). Loskiel, History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians, i. 14 (Iroquois). Richardson, Arctic Searching Expedition, ii. 42 (Crees). Oswald, quoted by Bastian, Der Mensch in der Geschichte, iii. 314 (Indians of California). Holder, in New York Medical Journal, December 7th, 1889, quoted by Havelock Ellis, op. cit. p. 9 sq. (Indians of Washington and other tribes in the North-Western United States). See also Karsch, ‘Uranismus oder Päderastie und Tribadie bei den Naturvölkern,' in Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen, iii. 112 sqq. 1 Lafitau, Moeurs des sauvages ameriquains, i. 603, 607 sqq. Dall, Alaska, p. 402; Bancroft, op. cit. i. 92; Waitz, Anthropologie der Naturvolker, iii. 314 (Aleuts). von Langsdorf, Voyages and Travels, ii. 48 (natives of Oonalaska). Steller, Kamtschatka, p. 289, n.a; Georgi, Russia, iii. 132 sq. (Kamchadales). 3 Davydow, quoted by Holmberg, Ethnographische Skizzen über die Völker des russischen Amerika,' in Acta Soc. Scientiarum Fennica, iv. 400 sq. Lisiansky, Voyage Round the World, p. 199. von Langsdorf, op. cit. similar practice prevalent among the Chukchi :-" It happens frequently that, under the supernatural influence. of one of their shamans, or priests, a Chukchi lad at sixteen years of age will suddenly relinquish his sex and imagine himself to be a woman. He adopts a woman's attire, lets his hair grow, and devotes himself altogether to female occupation. Furthermore, this disowner of his sex takes a husband into the yurt and does all the work which is usually incumbent on the wife in most unnatural and voluntary subjection. Thus it frequently happens in a yurt that the husband is a woman, while the wife is a man! These abnormal changes of sex imply the most abject immorality in the community, and appear to be strongly encouraged by the shamans, who interpret such cases as an injunction of their individual deity." The change of sex was usually accompanied by future shamanship; indeed, nearly all the shamans were former delinquents of their sex. Among the Chukchi male shamans who are clothed in woman's attire and are believed to be transformed physically into women are still quite common; and traces of the change of a shaman's sex into that of a woman may be found among many other Siberian tribes." In some cases at least there can be no doubt that these transformations were connected with homosexual practices. In his description of the Koriaks, Krasheninnikoff makes mention of the ke'yev, that is, men occupying the position of concubines; and he compares them with the Kamchadale koe'kčuč, as he calls them, that is, men transformed into women. Every koe'kčuč, he says, is regarded as a magician and interpreter of dreams; but from his confused description Mr. Jochelson thinks it may be inferred that the most important feature of the institution of the koe'kčuč lay, not in their shamanistic power, but in their position with regard to the satisfaction of the unnatural ii. 64. Sauer, Billing's Expedition to the Northern Parts of Russia, p. 176. Sarytschew, 'Voyage of Discovery to the North-East of Siberia,' in Collection of Modern and Contemporary Voyages, vi. 16. 1 Bogoraz, quoted by Demidoff, Shooting Trip to Kamchatka, p. 74 sq. 2 Jochelson, Koryak Religion and Myth, pp. 52, 53 n. 3. inclinations of the Kamchadales. The koe' kčuč wore women's clothes, did women's work, and were in the position of wives or concubines.1 3 7 In the Malay Archipelago homosexual love is common,2 though not in all of the islands. It is widely spread among the Bataks of Sumatra.1 In Bali it is practised openly, and there are persons who make it a profession." The basir of the Dyaks are men who make their living by witchcraft and debauchery. They "are dressed as women, they are made use of at idolatrous feasts and for sodomitic abominations, and many of them are formally married to other men." " Dr. Haddon says that he never heard of any unnatural offences in Torres Straits; but in the Rigo district of British New Guinea several instances. of pederasty have been met with, and at Mowat in Daudai it is regularly indulged in." Homosexual love is reported as common among the Marshall Islanders 10 and in Hawaii." From Tahiti we hear of a set of men called by the natives mahoos, who "assume the dress, attitude, and manners, of women, and affect all the fantastic oddities and coquetries of the vainest of females. They mostly associate with the women, who court their acquaintance. With the manners of the women, they adopt their peculiar employments. . . . The encouragement of this abomination is almost solely 7 Haddon, Ethnography of the Western Tribe of Torres Straits,' in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xix. 315. 8 Seligmann, 'Sexual Inversion among Primitive Races,' in The Alienist and Neurologist, xxiii. 3 sqq. 9 Beardmore, 'Natives of Mowat, Daudai, New Guinea,' in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xix. 464. Haddon, ibid. xix. 315. To Hernsheim, Beitrag zur Sprache der Marshall-Inseln, p. 40. A different opinion is expressed by Senfft, in Steinmetz, Rechtsverhältnisse von eingeborenen Völkern in Afrika und Ozeanien, p. 437. Dajacksch-deutsches p. 32. 11 Remy, Ka Mooolelo Hawaii, p. |