Of Prostitution among the Tartar Races.
The immense region of Central Asia, little known and seldom visited, has been the cradle of great nations, which have exercised a mighty influence on the fortunes of the world, and may again become conspicuous in history. It is, therefore, interesting, as well as important, to inquire into the characteristics of the populations which still cling to its soil. They are divided under many names, and among the most remarkable are the hordes of Kirghiz Kazaks, who wander between the borders of the Caspian Sea on the west, and the fortified line which forms the southern frontier of the Russian Empire. On the east it is divided by a similar chain of posts from the Chinese dominions, but towards the south the limits of their wanderings are unknown. Over this vast steppe a various climate prevails; but the whole is particularly marked by extremes of heat and cold, while the soil is composed of alternate deserts of sand and pasture, where rain during the greater part of the year is exceedingly scanty. A short and delicious spring, a burning and dry summer, a short and miserable autumn, which speedily darkens into a long, bitter, and gloomy winter—such are the influences to which these hordes are subject. Forests, patches of green, salt lakes, springs and rivers of fresh water, a few rich valleys, and some rocky hills, vary the aspect of the wilderness which is their home; but generally it is a blank and monotonous waste. All these circumstances are enumerated, as they may be supposed to have formed, or at least to have modified, the character of the Kirghiz Kazaks. They are divided into three principal hordes—the Great, the Lesser, and the Little—amounting altogether to from 2,000,000 to 2,400,000 souls. Engaged perpetually in wandering from place to place, they have nevertheless certain spots, belonging by prescriptive rights to particular tribes, where they encamp for the coldest months of the winter. Their manners afford a faithful picture of the ancient patriarchal life, not, indeed, the poetical life of Arcadia and the pastures of Israel, but that of the Scythians, as represented by Herodotus, or the Bedouins in their original simplicity. Forming a nation of shepherds, they appear to live only on and for their flocks, accustoming themselves little to the use of arms, and, though perpetually on horseback, seldom engaging in the chase. They dwell in huts or temporary habitations of strong wickerwork, covered in with fleeces; and in the interior of these singular habitations much comfort, elegance, and even sumptuous luxury may often be found. Nevertheless they are a robust, hardy race, possessing very indistinct ideas of property, and, though addicted to sensual enjoyments, long lived, and seldom visited by epidemic diseases, except when the small-pox is brought among them from Siberia.
Their manners with respect to the character and treatment of the female sex are simple, but, in comparison with other pastoral races, somewhat coarse. In costume the woman differs little from the man. Both men and women adorn themselves with ornaments of silver, gold, or coral, or even pearls and other gems, and in this reciprocal display of vanity we discover a token of equality between the sexes. It is difficult to ascertain the religion of these hordes, but it is apparently a crude mixture of Mohammedanism and Paganism. The Muslims have attempted to disseminate their doctrines widely, but few of the Prophet’s laws have been accepted so readily as that which allows a plurality of wives—which the Kirghiz indulge in whenever they can afford the amount to be paid for a bride according to the usages of their nation.
The Kirghiz are immoderately addicted to voluptuous pleasures, and are extremely idle. It is curious to remark, however, that while the men are distinguished by their indolence, the women are fond of exertion, occupying themselves, as much from inclination as from necessity, with the affairs of the household, with attendance on the flocks, and with the manufacture of garments. Their recompense is to be treated as servitors by masters who are sometimes proud and harsh; but the labour of the women is not compulsory, nor are they shut up in harems, or forbidden to mix with the other sex. The seclusion of females, indeed, is not a custom. Their manner of living exposes them to every temptation; jealousy has little power to watch, and the wife’s virtue is, for the most part, left to guard itself.
Though, as we have said, the Kirghiz, when they are rich enough, eagerly avail themselves of the privilege of polygamy, few possess wealth enough to enable them to marry more than one wife. This circumstance prevents them from indulging in that pride which impels a man to shut up the partner of his pillow from every eye but his own. They who have seraglios must follow a steady and uniform course of life. The Tartar’s tent offers few obstacles to curiosity or intrigue. Turks and Persians who keep a harem usually possess slaves also, whose labour permits their mistresses to lounge idly on silken cushions; but as the Kirghiz loves to be indolent, he is constrained to let his wife be as active as she pleases, and is never so happy as when she saves him the trouble of moving from his couch, by going everywhere and doing everything herself. But on horseback he is proud of motion, which accounts partly for the migratory habits of the hordes, though the nature of their country is the chief cause of their nomade manner of life. Women consequently enjoy their liberty, and to their love of industry they join a goodness of heart and a warmth of affection which extort praises from many travellers.
The great check upon polygamy is, as we have noticed, the cost of the Kalyms, which is to be paid for every woman. This price varies in amount, from five or six sheep, and occasionally less among the poor, to 200 or 500 or even 1000 horses among the rich. To these are added different household effects, with, on rare occasions, a few slaves, male or female. Out of these payments a considerable share goes to the Mohammedan Moolahs who frequent the steppes, and who are attracted thither no less by their profitable occupation of marrying the people than by religious zeal. The Kalym increases with the number of wives. The second costs more than the first, and the third than the second, and so forth, which enables none but a very wealthy man to keep a harem. The khan of the Little Horde, who was lord over nearly 1,000,000 men, had sixteen or seventeen wives, besides fifteen concubines, whose offspring, however, were all on an equality. This patriarch had 42 sons and about 34 daughters. Young men usually take their first wife not according to their own choice, but under their father’s direction. As to girls they are always under their parents’ control, and many are affianced during infancy.
The first arrangement made when a marriage is in contemplation is to fix the amount of the kalym, and the date on which it is to be paid. These preliminaries concluded, the Moolah consecrates the transaction by asking three times of the parents of the bride and those of the bridegroom, “Do you consent to the union of your children?” and reading prayers for the happiness of the married couple. Witnesses and arbitrators are then chosen, who may decide future disputes, should any such arise, and the nuptials are terminated by a feast and various kinds of merry-making. The man then begins to pay a kalym, or else his father does this on his behalf; and the parents of the girl occupy themselves with getting ready a trousseau for their daughter—among the articles of which it is essentially requisite to include the tent which the bride is to occupy when she is finally delivered over to her husband. While the kalym remains unpaid the marriage is suspended; though the bridegroom may pay visits to the maiden he has chosen, and even live with her, provided he engages not to take away her chastity.
Among some tribes these preliminary meetings are conducted with much ceremony; in all they are often the first interviews which the husband has with the woman who is to be his wife. When once, however, a part of the required amount is paid, neither can retract without disgrace. Ruptures, indeed, rarely, if ever, take place; partly because no young girl dare to assert a will of her own, and partly because the man does not care to rebel against a union which he is free to break when he desires.
Frequently, however, the bride and bridegroom, during their preliminary visits, anticipate the final nuptial ceremony; in which case this is usually hastened, though the whole amount of kalym may not have been paid. They are led, richly clothed if possible, into a tent, where various rites are performed. The husband then departs, but immediately comes again on horseback and demands his wife. Her parents refuse to yield her, when he enters, bears her off by force, places her across his saddle, and gallops away to his tent, which during many hours after is sacred against all intruders. This custom, however, is not universal.
If a man finds his wife not to be a virgin, he may disgrace her, send her home, and demand from her father the restitution of the kalym, or one of his other daughters who happens to be chaste, without payment.
As every woman brings with her dowry a new tent, so each wife, when a man has more than one, dwells in a separate habitation. The first is styled the “rich wife,” and exercises superior authority over all the rest. Though she may have disgusted her husband, he is bound to distinguish her by respect; while the others, entirely equal among themselves, remain always in a certain dependence on her. Prudent husbands divide even the flocks belonging to the different women, that the children of each may justly inherit her property. The chief wife may quit her husband, if she can show any grave cause for separation, and return to her parents, but the others have not that privilege.
The manners of the Kirghiz women are in general simple and courteous; and the conduct of the men towards them, though often rude, gross, and contemptuous, is frequently also polite and deferential. The love songs of the desert are some of them exceedingly poetical; and the pictures drawn by Tartar improvisatori of their mistresses are full of passion and adulation.
A man may kill his wife if he find her actually committing adultery, but not otherwise. A fine is the usual punishment of the adulterer; while the woman may be divorced, or chastised in various ways.
Generally the morals of the Kirghiz Kazaks are good. Chastity in their women is highly prized—its loss entailing disgrace; but as numbers of the men are extremely sensual, many prostitutes may usually be found in each camp, though not so many as some appear to imagine. They live usually in companies, resembling the class of suttlers in European armies; though some of superior fortune inhabit separate tents, and live in ease and plenty.
Among the Nogay Tartars, who are also nomades, the custom prevails of a man serving his father-in-law for a certain number of years. With them the weaker is absolutely the property of the stronger sex, and all contracts are transactions of sale. The father sells his daughter, the brother his sister, and girls are considered part of an inheritance as much as flocks and herds, and are equally divided among the sons. The value of a woman is measured in cows; five being the cost of an inferior, and thirty of a superior one. The man, however, though obliged to buy, is not allowed to sell his wife. If she transgress beyond his patience he turns her out of the dwelling, and she returns to her parents, who seldom fail to receive her kindly. Divorce is permitted, but is so costly that few resort to it. When a wife leaves her husband against his consent he may demand her back; but if she meanwhile commit adultery or theft, her parents must restore the kalym which was originally paid for her, and she becomes so infamous that only the poorest man will buy her.
The rich are polygamists; and as the sexes are about equal in point of numbers, many of the poor cannot get a wife of any kind. The woman is not allowed to eat with her husband; and if she expect paradise, it is with the understanding that she is to dwell there as a servitor. Marriages are not fruitful, and the population is regularly decreasing.
The Russians have introduced into the country certain virulent diseases, which aid rapidly to thin the people, who themselves have lost much in morality. Wherever they have large encampments, and settle for the winter, numbers of prostitutes spring up among them, not indeed entirely addicted and altogether destined to that calling, but employing it as a means of gain, and living on its wages for a shorter or a longer period.
Prostitution, which is unknown among the pastoral tribes of Arabia, is, in fact, very prevalent among some of the shepherd communities inhabiting the Tartar steppes. There are two classes of women who betake themselves to it—widows and divorced women—who, having no independent means of subsistence, hire out their persons under a sort of necessity, and linger through a miserable remnant of life, in dirt, rags, and contempt; and a few who addict themselves to prostitution simply under the impulse of a profligate disposition. On the whole, however, the morality of Tartars is of a superior character[83].