[12] Wilken, ‘Plechtigheden en gebruiken bij verlovingen en huwelijken bij de volken van den Indischen Archipel,’ in Bijdragen tot de taal- land- en volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, ser. v. vol. iv. 434 sqq.
[13] Westermarck, History of Human Marriage, p. 71. Crooke, Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, i. p. clxxxiv.
[14] Prain, ‘Angami Nagas,’ in Revue coloniale internationale, v. 491 sq.
[15] Sumner, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxxi. 96.
[16] Buch, ‘Die Wotjäken,’ in Acta Soc. Scientiarum Fennicæ, xii. 509.
[17] Georgi, Russia, iii. 156.
[18] Murdoch, ‘Ethnological Results of the Point Barrow Expedition,’ in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. ix. 419 sq. See also Turner, ‘Ethnology of the the Ungava District,’ in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. xi. 189 (Koksoagmyut); Parry, Second Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage, p. 529 (Eskimo of Igloolik and Winter Island).
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;[19] and it is noteworthy that to this group of peoples belong savages of so low a type as the Veddahs of Ceylon,[20] the Igorrotes of Luzon,[21] and certain Australian tribes.[22] 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” 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.[23] Moreover, in many tribes the free intercourse which prevails between unmarried people is not of a promiscuous nature, and leads necessarily to marriage should the girl prove with child.[24] Nay, among various uncivilised races not only the girl, but the man who seduces her is subject to punishment or censure.
[19] Westermarck, op. cit. p. 61 sqq.
[20] Nevill, ‘Vaeddas of Ceylon,’ in Taprobanian, i. 178.