and pay the price claimed for her.1 In Circassia, an incontinent daughter is generally sold as soon as possible, being a disgrace to her parents. Among the wretched inhabitants of Lob-nor, "immorality is severely punished." And regarding the Let-htas, a Hill Tribe of Burma, Mr. O'Riley states that, until married, the youth of both sexes are domiciled in two long houses at opposite ends of the village, and "when they may have occasion to pass each other, they avert their gaze, so they may not see each other's faces."4 As to the aborigines of the Indian Archipelago, Professor Wilken states that side by side with peoples who indulge in great licentiousness, there are others who are remarkably chaste. Thus, in Nias, the pregnancy of an unmarried girl is punished with death, inflicted not only upon her but upon the seducer. Among the Hill Dyaks, the young men are carefully separated from the girls, licentious connections between the sexes being strictly prohibited ; and the Sibuyaus, a tribe belonging to the Sea Dyaks, though they do not consider the sexual intercourse of their young people a positive crime, yet attach an idea of great indecency to irregular connections, and are of opinion that an unmarried woman with child must be offensive to the superior powers." 6 By some of the independent tribes of the Philippines also, according to Chamisso, chastity is held in great honour, "not only among the women, but also among the young girls, and is protected by very severe laws ;"8-a statement which is confirmed by Dr. Hans Meyer and Professor Blumentritt with reference to the Igorrotes of Luzon.9 1 Georgi, 'Beschreibung aller Nationen des russischen Reichs,' p. 311. 2 Klemm, loc. cit. vol. iv. p. 26. 3 Prejevalsky, 'From Kulja to Lob-nor,' p. 112. 4 Fytche, loc. cit. vol. i. p. 343. 5 Wilken, in' Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde van Nederlandsch- Indië,' ser. v. vol. iv. p. 444. 6 Low, loc. cit. pp. 300, 247. 7 St. John,' Life in the Forests of the Far East,' vol. i. pp. 52, et seq. • Kotzebue, loc. cit. vol. iii. p. 66. Meyer, 'Die Igorrotes von Luzon,' in 'Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte,' 1883, pp. Blumentritt, loc. cit. p. 27. For other tribes of the Indian 384, et seq. Mr. In New Guinea, too, chastity is strictly maintained.1 G. A. Robinson and the Catechist Clark, who lived for years with the aborigines, both declare their belief in the virtue of the young women; 2 and Dr. Finsch assures us that the natives of Dory are, in that respect, superior to many civilized nations in Europe. The French naturalists and some English writers spoke highly of the morality of the young people among the Tasmanians. The women of Uea, Loyalty Islands, are described by Erskine as "strictly chaste before marriage, and faithful wives afterwards."5 In Fiji, great continence prevailed among the young folk, the lads being forbidden to approach women till eighteen or twenty years old. Speaking of the aborigines of Melanesia, Dr. Codrington remarks, "It is certain that in these islands generally there was by no means that insensibility in regard to female virtue with which the natives are so commonly charged." In Samoa, the girls were allowed to cohabit with foreigners, but not with their countrymen, and the chastity of the chiefs' daughters was the pride of the tribe. But Mr. Turner remarks that, though this virtue was ostensibly cultivated here by both sexes, it was more a name than a reality.9 With reference to the Australian natives, Mr. Moore Davissays, Promiscuous intercourse between the sexes is not practised by the Aborigines, and their laws on the subject, particularly those of New South Wales, are very strict. When at camp, all the young unmarried men are stationed by themselves at the extreme ends, while the married men, each with his family, occupy the centre. No conversation is allowed. between the single men and the girls or the married women. . . . Infractions of these and other laws were visited Archipelago, see Marsden, The History of Sumatra,' p. 261; and Matthes, 'Bijdragen tot de Ethnologie van Zuid-Celebes,' p. 6. 1 Earl, 'Papuans,' p. 81. Waitz-Gerland, loc. cit. vol. vi. p. 629. Finsch 'Neu-Guinea,' pp. 77, 82, 92, 101. 2 Bonwick, loc. cit. p. 60. 4 Bonwick, pp. 59, 11. 3 Finsch, p. 101. Erskine, The Islands of the Western Pacific,' p. 341. 6 Ibid., p. 255. 8 Wilkes, loc. cit. vol. ii. p. 138. 7 Codrington, loc. cit. p. 235. 9 Turner, Nineteen Years in Polynesia,' p. 184. either by punishment by any aggrieved member of the tribe, or by the delinquent having to purge himself of his crime by standing up protected simply by his shield, or a waddy, while five or six warriors threw, from a comparatively short distance, several spears at him."1 Concerning several tribes in Western Victoria, Mr. Dawson likewise states that, at the corroborees and great meetings of the tribes, unmarried adults of both sexes are kept strictly apart from those of another tribe. "Illegitimacy is rare," he says, " 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." 2 Turning to the American peoples: among the early Aleuts, according to Veniaminof, "girls or unmarried females who gave birth to illegitimate children were to be killed for shame, and hidden." Egede tells us that, among the Greenlanders, unmarried women observed the rules of modesty much better than married women. "During fifteen full years that I lived in Greenland," he says, "I did not hear of more than two or three young women, who were gotten with child unmarried; because it is reckoned the greatest of infamies." According to Cranz, a Greenland maid would take it as an affront were a young fellow even to offer her a pinch of snuff in company.5 Among the Northern Indians, girls are from the early age of eight or nine years prohibited by custom from joining in the most innocent amusements with children of the opposite sex. "When sitting in their tent," says Hearne, "or even when travelling, they are watched and guarded with such an unremitting attention as cannot be exceeded by the most rigid discipline of an English boarding-school." Mr. Catlin asserts that, among the Mandans, female virtue is, in the respectable 1 Quoted by Brough Smyth, loc. cit. vol. ii. p. 318. 2 Dawson, 'Australian Aborigines,' pp. 33, 28. 3 Quoted by Petroff, loc. cit. p. 155. 4 Egede, 'Description of Greenland,' p. 141. F families, as highly cherished as in any society whatever.1 Among the Nez Percés,2 the Apaches, and certain other North American peoples, the women are described as remarkably chaste, the seducer being viewed by some of them with even more contempt than the girl he has dishonoured. And Dobrizhoffer praises the Abiponian women for their virtuous life.5 If we add to these facts those which will be adduced further on, showing what man requires in his bride, it must be admitted that the number of uncivilized peoples, among whom chastity, at least as regards women, is held in honour and, as a rule, cultivated, is very considerable. There being nothing to indicate that the morality of those nations ever was laxer, the inference of an earlier stage of promiscuity from the irregular sexual relations of unmarried people, could not apply to them, even if such an inference, on the whole, were right. But this is far from being the case: first, because the wantonness of savages, in several cases, seems to be due chiefly to the influence of civilization; secondly, because it is quite different from promiscuity. It has been sufficiently proved that contact with a higher culture, or, more properly, the dregs of it, is pernicious to the morality of peoples living in a more or less primitive condition. In Greenland, says Dr. Nansen, "the Eskimo women of the larger colonies are far freer in their ways than those of the small outlying settlements where there are no Europeans.” 6 And the Yokuts of California, amongst whom the freedom of the unmarried people of both sexes is very great now, are said to have been comparatively virtuous before the arrival of the Americans.7 In British Columbia and Vancouver Island, "amongst the interior tribes, in primitive times, breaches of chastity on the part either of married or unmarried females 1 Catlin, 'Illustrations of the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians,' vol. i. p. 121. 2 Schoolcraft, loc. cit. vol. v. p. 654. 3 Bancroft, loc. cit. vol. i. p. 514. p. 112. See Meares, 'Voyages,' p. 251; Waitz, loc. cit. vol. iii. were often punished with death, inflicted either by the brother or husband;" whilst, among the fish-eaters of the north-west coast, "it has no meaning, or, if it has, it appears to be utterly disregarded." Again, among the Queen Charlotte Islanders, the present depravation has, according to Captain Jacobsen, been caused by the gold-diggers who went there in the middle of this century.2 Admiral Fitzroy observed, too, that the unchastity of the Patagonian women did not correspond with the pure character attributed to them at an earlier time by Falkner, and he thinks that "their ideas of propriety may have been altered by the visits of licentious strangers." A more recent traveller, Captain Musters, observed, indeed, little immorality amongst the Indians whilst in their native wilds.* There is, further, no doubt that the licentiousness of many South Sea Islanders, at least to some extent, owes its origin to their intercourse with Europeans. When visiting the Sandwich Islands with Cook, Vancouver saw little or no appearance of wantonness among the women. But when he visited them some years afterwards, it was very conspicuous; and he ascribes this change in their habits to their intercourse with foreigners. Owing to the same influence, the women of Ponapé and Tana lost their modesty; and the privileges granted to foreigners in Samoa have been already mentioned. Nay, even in Tahiti, so notorious for the licentiousness of its inhabitants, immorality was formerly less than it is now. Thus, as a girl, betrothed when a child, grew up, " for the preservation of her chastity, a small platform of considerable elevation was erected for her abode within the dwelling of her parents. Here she slept and spent the whole of the time she passed within doors. Her parents, or some member of the family, attended her by night and by day, supplied her with every 1 Lord, 'The Naturalist in Vancouver Island,' vol. ii. p. 233. 2 Woldt, loc. cit. p. 28. 3 King and Fitzroy, loc. cit. vol. ii. p. 173. + Musters, 'At Home with the Patagonians,' p. 197. • Vancouver, 'Voyage of Discovery,' vol. i. pp. 171, et seq. 6 Waitz-Gerland, loc. cit. vol. v. pt. ii. p. 108. Brenchley, 'Jottings during the Cruise of H.M.S. Curaçoa among the South Sea Islands,' p. 208. Cf. Meade, 'A Ride through the Disturbed Districts of New Zealand, p. 163 (Maoris). |